Hello all would be tanks! If you aren’t sure on how to tank or need a refresher look no further…let us begin.
Rule #1. You are the leader of the group. Period. When you zone into an instance you should have a macro ready to hit that basically tells the group that you are in command and lists all of your expectations regarding their playstyle and behavior. Players crave structure and are always willing to appease a strong leader, this is where you come in. Even if you have never been in a particular instance before you need to walk in like you own the place and set the tone to your underlings immediately.
Rule #2. Mana Conservation. At any point a healer requests you stop pulling because they have no mana you should keep moving and pulling. This is a power play that the healer is using to usurp your power over the group and challenge your authority. If at any point you do stop for mana breaks you need to immediately look at the Details! to check Over Healing. If this is over 4.5% you need to link this in /party and kick this healer and any healer sympathizers in the group. These players are cancerous to a tank.
Rule #3. Macros. You need to macro all of your cooldowns to one keybind and stack as many as possible into that one key. Use this ability on cooldown. There is absolutely no reason to try and use them separately it just wastes valuable global cooldowns that you are losing out in damage. If you get into a bind at some point your healer should be ready to use an external cooldown to keep you alive, that is their job after all.
Rule #4. Active Mitigation. There are basically two schools of thought on this topic. One school of thought is that you should leave your active mitigation abilities in your spell book, the other is to assign them to keybinds and never use them. This is another blatant attempt by healers to get you to do their job for them. Your job is to gain threat, not keep yourself alive or do half of their job.
Rule #5. Positioning. I have heard for years dps whining when I have turned dragons around while I am tanking. This is a non-issue plain and simple. Whenever someone complains about getting killed by a “tailswipe mechanic” most likely they are trying to cover something up. Nevermind that mindless yammering about positioning or LoS pulls, whatever that is. Again, this goes back to a non-tank trying to gain control over you as a tank and dictating how the run should go. This type of player needs to be kicked from the group before he convinces other mindless drones that you are incompetent.
Rule #6. Pace. This goes back to Rule #2 of Tanking. You never stop moving. Ever. If you are not moving you are doing it wrong. DPS is at 39% HP and the Healer is OOM? Not our problem, they need to be more efficient with their mana/personal cooldowns. Go ahead and pull that last trash pack into the Boss and tank it. Players will respect tanks when they realize that you have no fear and are willing to stand in the face of danger with reckless abandon.
Rule #7. Criticism. This is something that you, a tank, should never have to endure. If a player complains about something you are doing HALT THE RUN IMMEDIATELY!! Berate this player and go for the vote kick. After the run you should make a character on his server so you can take this problem into /trade chat and have it out with him.
Rule #8. MDT. It is overrated and unnecessary. DPS players will usually try to gain the upper hand on you by asking you to link your route. This is a trap and easy to avoid if you play it right. It is best to tell them to shut up and kill things when you pull them. If they can do enough damage it shouldn’t matter if you go up to 150% trash pulled in the dungeon. If someone else links their own route immediately try to remove said player. This player isn’t worried about the success of the run but is more interested in making you look bad. If this isn’t your keystone it might be best to wait until the key is in the font before you leave so they can learn their lesson better.
Rule #9. Skips. The lower the key the more likely you will need to do exotic skips. These minions in your group at this level will be enamored with your dungeon knowledge when you have them jumping on the 2nd lamp post to bug out a trash pack so you can save 3/100ths of a second. If a player fails a skip leave group immediately, especially if you just learned of this skip yourself 15 minutes prior to trying it. Don’t be too hasty though, make sure to tell them to /uninstall before you leave group.
Rule #10. Ground Effects. There is too much on the ground with covenant abilities now. Just stand in one spot and let the healer do their job. If you see yourself getting low on HP, stop tanking and start typing to ask your healer why you aren’t getting healed. If they complain about unnecessary damage you are taking they probably aren’t a healer that can get you through the content anyways. These are the same types that want you to use Active Mitigation (see Rule #4.).
Rule #11. Enjoy making friends. If you follow my above advice you will be overflowing with players looking to have you in their raids and dungeons. Don’t be surprised if a top 10 US Guild takes notice and you end up on a trial run.
Edit: This was a guide I made in March of 2017 and I though I would bring this back for Shadowlands!