Hey all. I need some help/guidance for tanking on my 70 Druid, specifically heroics… and even more specifically Shattered Halls. It’s just not pretty.
I’m fairly geared (3/5 set pieces, Stranglestaff or Earthwarden, Heavy Clefthoof, etc).
I just really struggle with most of the big pulls. I’ll bring a mage and hunter for double CC, and it’s just impossible to hold threat. Sometimes even the healer pulls threat, so I really feel like I must be doing something wrong.
Any suggestions on ways to improve my heroic, multimob tanking? I really want to love that aspect of the game, but overall it’s just not an enjoyable experience. It has me wanting to just raid log, which I don’t want to. I want to be able to help out guildies and pugs without having it be an embarassing mess.
Tab swiping, lacerate, mangle for starters if you’re not already doing that and using FF on different targets.
I’ve had bear tanks say “Swipe only hits 3 targets” as you watch them not once swap targets. I’ve also seen them use lacerate/FF on the main target only.
You could also open with barkskin > hurricane.
Edit: One last thing, people need to get out of the mind set that they have with Pally Tanks. If it’s guildies they should be understanding, and as a group should get into a rhythm on when they can start their mongloid madness.
This is coming from a druid that can do heroic SH without even bothering with CC outside of priest mind control as per a run last night did for a guildy.
Sh really is not that bad as a druid but key points to make it easy:
sham healer earth shield places the threat on you when your hit doubling with thorns for a significant amount of threat when you are getting hit. ITs not needed it the least but it helps if having threat issues and shams are strong healers for there anyways.
always take a priest. Mind control is redic strong in SH mind control the darkcaster on smaller pulls to remove the mob that really hits you the hardest (druids lack magic damage reduce we can honestly laugh at the rest of the damage assuming you are in t4 gear at the point you got 3/5 set earthwarden and otherwise as this means near armor cap)
On the hardest 3 pulls the final large one pre boss 1 and the large ones in between the gladiator pulls pre boss 3 mind control the healer. THe healer dose the same hps as approx 2 norm healers so not only making it easier to kill them it makes it nearly impossible for you to die. Add in another CC on the dark caster and its all physical damage that druids love making it easy
pop a ironshield pot before the hardest 3 pulls if wanting extra leeway. I don’t now days but the armor is worth.
hot youself before pulling and mark the legionar skull rever X and do single target them down.
lust the large pull pre boss 1 as well as the large pull pre boss 3. There is no reason what so ever to be using lust on the bosses when the entire difficulty is the trash. Make sure your dps know that saving cds for bosses is stupid in SH and they should be using them esp on the hard packs. You get the 3 hard packs down and the place really has no threat left.
Otherwise take a imp blizzard mage and a warlock + priest. Have priest MC the healer or darkcaster while you tank legionar imp blizzard and seed allows for kit killing of everything else with ease and makes the run a joke.
Don’t bring a hunter. There honestly bringing nothing to the table you need to help you. Trap is a unrealable cc that is harder to redo while vastly weaker than mind control. While weaker than poly and lacking the imp blizzard of a mage. While having lower dps vs a warlock while warlocks fear is just as good as a CC when they get out of the blizzard early. Or if not using imp blizzard still works as a great CC by just pulling back and you can even double CC if you really need help with sucubus (you shouldent need it but still worth it for the worst 3 packs if having issues). Missdirect is a joke in 5 mans the amount of threat transfered is honestly next to nothing compaired to dps aoeing something they should NOT be doing when a druid tank they should be focusing the leagionar down THAN aoeing unless using imp blizzard +seed.
As for multimob tanknig in general its just pre hot before a large pull read anything 4+ mobs AFTER cc. If you can cc down to 3 mobs can skip it to enter with more rage. CC down to 3 mobs when every possible. Lead with a mangle on the skull followed by a swipe or two as stuff gathers to get some threat into a lacerate + maul as rage allows. once 2nd lac is on main target tab to X and get a lacerate going on them and mangle skull w.e its of cooldown. Put enough threat on skull to not lose to while doing a lacerate on each target than swich to swipe + maul on the main target and follow kill order. Your group should not be hard aoeing for the first 5-6 secs which gives you time for a mangle + 2 swipes for starting threat. while if there aoeing from there means you swipe more to keep agro even vs if the group is more ST focused or the pack calls for focus focus our threat with lacerate and mangle. Maul should constantly be used to get extra threat on the targets dps is close on. You should NOT be making a group with a mix of aoe + ST dps pick one style and stick to it. Either get 3 dps that want to aoe and build the team around that or pick three high ST dps and build the team around that so you KNOW what type of agro pattern you should be following.
If a healer pulls threat it honestly means your not tabing while swipeing. Nothing more to it the swipes mixed into your rotation should cover all healer threat asuming good CC use. That being said lower gear tanks have issues with heal threat two fold as you take more damage requiring more healing so more healing threat while producing less threat yuorself.
Ulti beyond the general advice above cant really say more unless you post a log and you should when asking for advice as you cant really get good on point advice without a log. As can’t see what your doing to address it so can only give the general points.
its your gear. clefthoof is just mit. Once you get more phase 1 bis + dps trinkets like brooch and hourglass, it’ll be easier. prebis, druids are kinda scuffed with threat
The fact he mentioned healers pulling of him shows that no it’s not likly his gear as the fundamental issue. It’s a rotation and playstyle thing. Even with full survival pre raid bis a druid tank has enough threat to keep mobs of the healer assuming proper Cc is being used. This is regardless of the amount of gear the healer has as healer threat is based on the damage healed so a better geared healer dose not produce more threat unless they also dps. In fact better gear healers often produce less due to more likly being enchanted or in the case of preist or sham have threat transfer heals like earth shield or Pom that get stronger as they gear reducing there threat releative to the tank assuming same damage intakes.
While yes more gear will always help that is a crutch it is not the solution to threat issues. Understanding why you are losing that and addressing it as the op is trying to do should be the move not just saying he’s lacking gear and call it a day when that’s just not true if he’s losing agro to healers. That’s a issue that is likly a combo of, not cc’ing enough mobs to reduce damage to a resonable level, bad rotation and bad targeting (which includes marking). While likly also being a factor of the dps causing problems by pulling agro and making him focus one target more to not get a good spread of threat. Esp as he mentioned he had his two set that alone is a large threat increase beyond pre raid bis.
Time is all you need. Problem always is initial threat which’ll hurt you because you to generate rage. Things to do beforehand:
Lifebloom yourself
Regrowth yourself
This gives you initial “healer” aggro.
Save your badges for a Bloodlust Brooch. Activate that before some multi-target pulls and it boosts the damage to your Swipe.
Maul is off the GCD, so mix it in to whatever else you’re doing.
Tab + Lacerate is helpful, yes, but again it takes time. Make sure you have your taunt at the ready and pick up any adds running toward your healer. Often whatever add you’re not focusing will attack the healer because you haven’t hit it enough or the lacerate stacks are fewer.
Just make sure startattack macro in all your attacks or for some reason your auto attacks can stop losing you alot of rage. When clearcasting proc use your most expensive attack like swipe on aoe or maul on single target. Sounds like you having aggro problems so check if u hit cap and look up some expertise rating gear other than that just keep practicing over time you’ll get the hang.
Healer threat is stronger in tbc yes but once again read what I said. Healer agro is a constant that is based on amount healed not healer gear assuming close cases eg the same pulls. Even with just preraid he should NOT be losing agro to healers as said if played correctly as he has significantly more gear than preraid not only for mit but for threat as such requires LESS healing and as such healing agro being LESS than if he was pre raid with his agro higher assuming playing correctly it is NOT a gear issue.
No its NOT a fact pre raid bis druid threat is scuffed to the point that healers pull agro of you when played correctly. SAying that is is shows you are not informed and are blaming your bad play on gear as such hindering your own growth and now trying to hinder another players by not correctly addressing the problem.
Yes pre raid bis druid threat is lower than other tanks for aoe 4+ targets, 3 targets your ST threat remains higher the warriors on main target with the 2 other targets being comparable to warrior and less than pally. But lower is vastly different than the healers pulling of you when played correctly and mobs are correctly controlled that you claimed. As to claim its a gear issue all other factors better be correct or correct to a reasonable level to say hes playing well or else those factors must be addressed first and are the issue. The ops issues is not likly to be a result of his gear, with the gear he mentioned his issue is in playstyle and rotation if hes losing agro to healers. If he was only losing agro to dps than your statement may of had value but the moment we started talking about losing agro to healers it no longer was a gearing issues but a issue with how not only him but likly the group as a whole is playing. Hense asking for logs.
Having gear is a crutch. A cruch that makes problems with your rotation and control WORSE if you don’t address them when there noticed. While yes more gear would solve the immediate issue it would not fix the underlying problem. As such hurting his play in the future by enforcing the bad habits. The op coming here to seek help is the correct move as its obv there is a issue beyond gear if hes talking about losing threat to healers. As even pre raid bis (which the op is significantly more geared than not only for mit but for threat both highly reducing healers relative threat) healer agro is no where near yours assuming proper rotation and mob control.