Just got done doing a random heroic, with me as the tank. I couldn’t hold threat very well. I was trying to figure out what was wrong, and it ended up being someone with 5500 gearscore (mine is 4200). They were doing 5x the dmg I’m doing. VERY unenjoyable experience. I just put them on ignore, so I’d get people closer to my gearscore to group with. Shouldn’t that gearscore be doing the M+ versions?
No matter what the gear score difference from the tank is or no matter what damage they do, any DPS who pulls aggro off the tank is a BAD dps. Just put them on ignore and move on.
[It is actually fun to see how much DPS I can generate as a dps without pulling aggro when the gear score gap is huge. But, some DPS just doesn’t care nor set their pride in not pulling aggro off the tank.]
It was a cat druid, I don’t think he was using cower at all either. I guess the queue will be slightly longer for him now.
was it one of the ICC dungeons? cause those count as Gamma dungeons and he was probably doing his daily if so
I would not worry about it. If dps wants to pull off you let them…they tank it, they spank it 
While I suppose this is definitely one way to handle things, it isn’t my personal preference. A big part of tanking, in my opinion, is shouldering the responsibility for directing runs and doing our best to ensure they go smoothly. There’s a great deal of internal reflection, and questioning about what matters.
Newer tanks may spend a time attempting to tell random people in instances how they should be playing, and somehow expecting them to learn to match the tank’s own playstyle even though the likelihood of being matchmade again with the same person is so small, it’s probably not worthwhile.
Although specifically directed towards newer warrior tanks for WoW Classic (Classic Era) and lower level tanking, the advice given in Elite’s Warrior Tanking Guide regarding tank threat and aggro somehow seems fitting here:
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did you remember to take the tank buff or was this a normal heroic?
they pull a lot of threat even for geared and experienced tanks. If you have a paladin in your group tell them to salv them as much as possible
Ultimately every pair, party, or raid has to work within the confines and numbers within their reach. There comes a point in gear disparity where a dps will pull off a tank no matter much effort or skill said tank employs to prevent it.
Petulant cat druids are notorious in wotlk for being difficult for tanks as they have inherent movement speed advantages over some tanks ( warrior, dk). And the combination of swipe potency and being energy based means they can very heavily frontload aoe threat. I suggest you let said dps tank, or die. Consequences is the only language players will hear.
yeah I was tanking some heroics for some guildies and my prot pal is 5500gs which isn’t bad and mostly gemming STR and hit for threat. Had to let out 6300gs cat just tank stuff on their own - no way I am keeping 100% threat 100% of the time. He can go bear if he needs to
Some clarity here: It was a normal heroic, not the M+ versions. I was in defense stance (warrior) and had vigilance on the said dps.
In the late 70s in normal leveling dungeons I’ve frequently gotten level 80s, some are high 4000s, but some are 5k+ GS. Sometimes they’re the only person from their server in the group so they didn’t even queue with a friend.
Not really sure what they’re doing but it appears to be somewhat common for them to do easier content for some reason.
Tbh, I feel differently about it than I would feel at the start of an expansion. If no one dies (or at least if only that dps dies), I really don’t care anymore.
H-FOS is always the most interesting - I’ve seen a 3.9 gs DK try to kick a hunter (the only dps carrying the group at that) for occasionally pulling one mob, and yet having tanked it many times, you run into boomkins who open with starfall and typhoon - often unglyphed - who open up before the mobs have even been tagged much less gathered.
If I’m not in the mood for it I drop group, but for the most part I just accept that a) this is kinda how things roll right now, and b) it can actually be pretty good tanking practice at using skills and managing CDs I don’t use or at least rarely in a smooth run when I just have all the aggro all the time with ease (Intervene, Challenging Roar, etc.).
One may question if I’m enabling bad behavior, and the answer is “probably” but having tanked/healed a long long time, I can also say that calling people out almost never works, and you won’t get 3 votes to kick unless at least 1 dps agrees - which they only will if they are negatively impacted.
Which they probably aren’t.