My Guardian druid alt at ilvl 185 is having an absolute impossible time holding threat in m+. My brewmaster main has to throw out the odd taunt but has no issues here. I was fine going into this expansion knowing they were bottom tier for damage among tanks but this translates to enormous threat issues. I thought things would get better with gear but it’s just not happening. A pull of 5 mobs opening with thrash, then swipe spam just doesn’t cut it with decent DPS players.
I’ll have aggro on 1 or 2 mobs and the other 3 will just wreck the DPS as i try and taunt/mangle to regain threat. By the time I get aggro on the those, I’ve often lost threat on the others I initially had threat on. I usually can’t even think of using ironfur because rage has to be spent on maul to try and get any kind of threat. It’s extremely stressful and unfun for me and my group.
Also, frenzied regen being on GCD feels crazy bad.
I’m going to raid tonight and im deeply concerned I’m going to have to taunt on cooldown to keep the boss looking at me when it’s not supposed to be looking at my DH tank partner who is going to be generating 2x as much threat as me.
Is anyone else having such a bad time?
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Threat problems are almost never a spec issue and almost always a player issue. Either you’re not paying attention or the DPS need to chill.
I have played a lot of guardian in previous expansions. I have mained tank for a very long time and know what I’m doing. Unless there is some other aoe threat generating ability other than thrash and swipe that I’ve missed in my spellbook, I’m not doing something wrong.
This isn’t classic. I can’t tell my DPS to “chill”… We won’t time keys. I’m not about to ask them to wait for me to get 3 stacks of thrash and moonfire on every target before they start DPSing.
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Tanks need to adjust how they pull based on their target caps. Swipe I believe is capped to five targets, so unless it’s forced, outside of berserk/incarn you aren’t going to want to pull big if you want threat.
Every other tank that I’ve talked to doesn’t have this issue. I can pull 20+ mobs on my brewmaster and be fine aggro-wise without cooldowns. DH and Pally also have no issue in this department. I’m not sure how warriors are doing.
I’m not just having issues when there is more than 5 mobs. I’m having problems holding aggro on even 50% of my targets with a pull of 5 mobs when I’m in a group with even moderately strong DPS. It’s not a target cap issue, it’s a threat output issue.
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You have to be on your game with dps who are pumping, sure.
You get someone doing 4k or 5k overall and you’re going to have to play well (just like the dps player is playing well to do that much damage). You’ll need good threat nameplates, and to prioritize and change targets as threat starts slipping. But it certainly shouldn’t be insurmountable.
You won’t need to tell dps to wait for 3 stacks of thrash unless you’re totally clueless. But you’re doing +3’s by the looks. You could full wipe 5x, wait for 3 stacks of thrash on every pull before letting dps do damage - and you’ll still time low keys like that.
You’ll (very) likely be making rotational mistakes for the problem to be as bad as you’re saying, unless you’re exaggerating.
Use your speed though. Get there first and pump some threat so dps don’t have any downtime. You’re a druid, only a DH or Monk should be anywhere near you if you want to be getting somewhere first and know how to properly use your movement abilities.
I’m curious what the guardian druid aoe threat rotational mistakes I could be making are? It’s thrash on cd and swipe filler for aoe threat right? I’m not saying I’m the best by any stretch, but I’m an experienced tank that has pushed 2-3k io in multiple seasons on several classes and I’ve never experienced this kind of threat issue outside of the most extreme dps spike cases.
I’m always the first one in there and get at least 1-2 globals before the DPS do their thing, but that doesn’t seem to be enough.
I was planning on pushing at least +10 this week where some aggressive pulling and DPS is needed. The same issue will present itself in higher keys but amplified 
I apologize if I’m coming off as a bit of a complainer but after looking around a bit more, this does seem to be a pretty big issue for bears at the moment. I’m sure I could be doing better, but I’m just really disappointed with how my bear felt in my first few m+ compared to my brewmaster.
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All I can say is I haven’t seen the issues be anywhere as bad as you describe, either when tanking, or when dps’ing and having another druid tank.
And I can probably safely assume that the dps i’m talking about will have been putting out twice the damage of what I can see from the couple runs you’ve done.
So I don’t know what to tell you. Yes, we need to play well to hold threat against dps who are also playing well. That’s just as it should be though, in my opinion anyway.
That first thrash is really key. Much like brews first keg smash, really gotta try have it hit everything. But if you’re a 2k+ player then you understand this basic stuff.
Short answer, dunno what your problem is, especially in low keys that look like they’ve been done really slowly. Dps can’t exactly be pumping unless there’s somehow 20x wipes in there.
All tanks getting a 10% threat buff on 15th, maybe that’ll help you out.
Next week’s patch will bring +10% threat for all the tanks. Yes this is an issue blizzard is actually aware of.
this early in an expac its almost never a player issue, threat was an issue in early bfa just as it is now. bliz is going to increase threat for all tanks so its not a player issue. it will even out.
Isn’t that because they actively nerfed threat going into BfA? Like 400%? Lol
I don’t remember how long into bfa we were but they did fix it, I kind of expect things to need some adjustments in the first weeks in a new xpac. The threat issue was there since release but it really wasn’t a huge issue but it should be fixed now. One thing I’ve noticed in SL dungeons that I don’t remember as much in bfa dungeons is certain trash mobs randomly target dps and heals and I can’t taunt them back so I think that is just by design.
Yeah threat is not good. Unholy dk rips off me in +10 and got buttblasted by those gargon mobs, and those shadowclaw spamming mobs.
I have issues when its over 5 mobs. I use my Overcharged Anima Battery trinket and swipe spam until the amount of mobs is manageable. If its going to be on cooldown I either use Convoke the Spirits or Guardian of Ursoc to gain more threat on the mobs.
3 months later… Its still the same . I have the same issue with Blood DK and Guardian Druid. I was tanking Blood on a m5 at 202ilvl and had a warrior ilvl 180ish, forcing me to use dark command on CD, same with my Druid. Even if the DPS is under geared. Its not just you. There are several factors at play here. 1 Blizzard has pretty much given up on the game since activison just sees it as a massive cash cow. So little goes into balance the design and fixing issues. I have tanked for a long time Since WotLK, with the same group of people, and never had the threat issues I am having now. I also have a demon hunter and its the opposite, I am undergeared and holding threat with DPS at around ilvl 200 - 210ish.
Back in the day, DPS needed to know what to attack when, and how to hold their burst for the right moments. People used to use Crowd control, people used to interrupt. Shadowlands is a lot like Burning Crusade -the Demon hunters who are effortless auto tanks. If you are a seasoned tank, the issue is not with you, but with the DPS that do not understand they need to control their damage output until you are only dealing with 1 or 2 left over from the mobs. But don’t worry, every ret paladin and Arms warrior in the game that started playing in the last few years, will blame you and call you a bad tank… Because they do not tank, they do not understand , the days of Auto Tank Threat generation are over. Unless you’re a DH…
DPS players who have never healed or tanked Love to blame the healer or the Tank for wipes, because they are of the mindset of only knowing the mechanics, and putting out as much DPS as possible so they can see who has the bigger… well you know…with their recount. how many times I have seen DPS say “I did my job, you guys suck” when it was bad damage output management that caused a wipe.
So its a lot of things at play here. An old dying and neglected game is part of it, but just find the right partners that understand tanks in general do not generate the threat they have for so many expansions in the past. Or do what I did and make a DH you can run Mythic 6 with a 180ilvl DH and 200+ ilvl DPS , sit back and watch the mobs stick to you like a magnet to a refrigerator door.
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