Do tanks use taunt on trash?

Community General Discussion
1

Brand new to tanking and im not sure if you open with taunt on trash packs?

2

You don’t open with it, you use it to taunt things that are attacking other players to get aggro back.

Maybe you’ll use it to pull a pack while you’re already in combat and have no deathgrip or any other ranged abilities up but that’s it.

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3

While I’m by no means a pro tank, I do have a bear druid that I use some times. I havent really tanked any dungeons or raids on her since Legion… But I did (and do on World bosses and stuff) taunt trash if I see one of these things:

  1. Someone in my group is about to agro something because they aren’t paying attention and I know it will destroy them.
  2. Someone pulled something else and are clearly having trouble.
  3. Someone pulled something and the healer got agro on it due to all their healing.
  4. If something has spawned in the middle of the group and is going to be something we have to deal with anyways.

Now if someone taunts it back, I’ll just be like OK THEN and go back to the main thing.

4

Nope. Here is how I do an open on trash:

Avenger shield the main target, striking the rest
Concencrate (AoE) the area
Judgement/other normal damage spells; watch for interrupt moments (important, your job is mostly interrupts and control, not really damage)

But here is the key: use Threat Plates add on and watch for any mobs you lose or don’t have threat on - switch to those and taunt. If your taunt is down, then stun them or just try to dps hard. You need to get that threat.

(Brewmaster and prot war play nearly the same way - a big group AoE shot to get things started and another AoE to establish baseline threat; use taunt only when it is necessary to regain aggro).

Also if you have a rogue or hunter in your team, they should be helping you with aggro; both can deflect aggro to you and open hard, making the whole pull cake.

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5

Don’t open with it but it is nice to get rando mobs attention if you lose their agro

6

I try to aggro everything so the healer can focus on healing ONE player instead of four.
I dont know how others do it, but I do know my healers seem to appreciate the effort.

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7

I highly recommend going into your interface options and enabling “raid-style party frames”. The people’s boxes will get a red frame if they’ve pulled aggro, and you can instantly tell when you’re out of range of someone. It’s nice for healing too.

But aye, as stated above, taunts usually aren’t an opener. Your smashy AoE stuff should handle most threat, and then you can use taunt to snap something back to you if it goes at someone else.

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8

Only taunt if you lose aggro. I recommend the addon tidy plates, so you can see which mobs are aggro-ed on to you and if one is losing aggro.

9

open with taunt, it raises the agro you generate and will prevent you from losing agro on main target and gets taunt on c/d so u can use it more to retain agro on mobs. a smart group will always give u a few seconds to get agro on larger packs so u dont lose it, but if they dont u will lose agro on every that u didnt taunt if they have high enough burst dps

10

Only when the mob makes a B-line for someone else.

11

you never want to open with taunt, it’s easy to build aggro right off the bat.

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12

Often times when I’m healing and someone wants to go toe-to-toe with an elite mob, I’ll let them get near death before a quick heal, just so they get the point.

13

tell ppl too run into you if party member gets aggro by mistake

14

You should use taunt on any target that you need extra threat on, but its not going to do too much good on trash specifically as multiple targets will all likely be ripped in different directions if its going to happen at all.

What most people don’t think about with taunt is that it will dramatically increase the threat you do in the window, so if you are repeatedly having trouble with trash, you will want to cycle taunt early to help prevent the issues rather than try to react to them later.

Especially on trash with a big named mob that people are likely to target off.
If there is a named mob or something visually larger, this typically draws the attention of most of your group’s DPS, so it would be pertinent to taunt it on the pull and build extra threat so that one especially doesn’t get loose.

The best way to get threat and keep it on trash is to beat your DPS there though.
Work on that as step 1, and you’ll have no need for taunt on trash basically ever. Maybe skittish weeks.

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15

Not as an opener, but as a way to regain aggro if someone else is topping a mobs aggro meters (albeit briefly). But here’s some additional advice from a fellow B DK.

Your best opener is probably Death Grip. If it’s not up, or I don’t want to waste it, I’ll often lay down Death and Decay fairly close to a pack of mobs, and smack the group with Blood Boil to establish aggro. From there I’ll back off a bit, allowing the ranged DPS to get in a few shots, while D&D slows the pack down from being able to hit anyone.

Should any of the mobs decide to go after a healer or dps. You can easily see which one it is, and either Asphyxiate or Taunt, depending on the situation.

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16

God I hate wayward DPS players who clearly have no comprehension the stress the put on healer mana when they dont just let the tank do his job.
Yeah, we can get away with it a bit. I cant count how many times Ive just sat down in the middle of a run and started eating to get my mana up after a couple DPS clowns decided to pull everything in sight.
Ive let a couple of them die, but it was mostly because they went in one direction and the tank went in another. I followed the tank, they were out of range and I aint following them.
40 yards. thats my healing range. Leave that and die :smiley:

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17

Depends if the trash needs to have you at the top of it’s threat.

Most of the time things in Melee or things you are actively tanking don’t need taunted. Sometimes a stray runs for Heals or a DPS, taunt those so they come to you.

Taunting isn’t a part of an active threat build, it’s only used for utility and mob control.

18

I never open with taunt and barely use it on trash however unless 5 mans then I use it more raid trash I barely do because most of the time the raid group just opening up on trash and aoeing mobs. In M+ in skittish week I believe it is, is when it is most use. Unless you are under geared or dps out gears you by a good amount I find that maintaining threat really isn’t a huge issue once I gather it.

Never played a DK so cant tell you anything there but as a pally your opening rotation should be enough to maintain any type agro.

19

that’s… kind of the job. I’m sure they do!

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20

you want to run in and grab it all. you can use taunt to pick up any that get peeled off, or just tab to them and hit them with something directly.

one of the most common mistakes I see new tanks making is using a ranged ability to grab one from a pack, then not having threat on any of the rest.

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