The Tank-DPS Relationship

The last post didn't really cover what I wanted to write about. It does, however, serve as a nice basis to cover what I really wanted to.

The main basis for the post is the following quote:

"You have to play a tank to be good at World of Warcraft."

I don't recall who said that to me, and I don't fully agree with it. I don't think you have to have played a tank to be good at WoW, but I think you need to be capable of playing one. The last post lists some of the important points of tanking, and a lot of the good DPS (and healers, though their existance is ignored in this post) will already be doing many of those things.

The main thing as a DPS is to know how your tank does his or her job. If you're raiding regularly with somebody, you should know them pretty well anyway. Pay attention to what they're doing and you'll be fine. Attacking an add that your tank isn't targetting will likely cause you to pull aggro. You also need to know how fast your tank can build threat, which will be important after aggro resetting effects such as the lightning tendrils in the Iron Council encounter.

As an example, I'll take Mimiron phase three:
Multiple adds spawning in different locations around the room. The first add to be picked up will be the closest - it will likely get three GCDs of my time before I move on to pick up the next add. Three GCDs is enough threat to keep that add on me if it's not being attacked. Threat from heals and aoe effects shouldn't beat that before I'm attacking that enemy again.

If my DPS immediately open up on that add, one of them may pull aggro. If I have to move a lot to pick up the second add, it's going to be a while before I'm contributing any substantial amount of threat to that first add, increasing the chances that one of the DPS will pull aggro.

This is where knowing how your tank works comes in. My DPS should know that's what I'm going to do, and shouldn't fully open up on the adds until I've collected them all together.

The main thing as a tank is to know your DPS and their threat output. As a Paladin tank, I tend to pick the person who I think is going to be pulling aggro the most if I'm tanking multiple adds, and set them as focus so I can cast Righteous Defense without switching to target them. If I judged incorrectly, changing the person I have on focus takes about a second.

Learning how your group works is easier if you're regularly raiding with the same people. If you're in an ever changing 10 man raid group, it's a longer process (and requires you to learn how more people play the game). But once you've done the learning, life is easy. So go out there and do it. Ask your tank how he deals with different situations if you like. It will likely make you a better player and in turn make your group better.

Oh Thorim, how I love/hate you

When I first started tanking, I knew that I was going to have to take on more responsibility than other members of the group. After all, the main reason I started tanking was because I didn't want to trust other people to do it competently. I knew that this decision would result in the majority of boss fights being stressful for me even if they're relatively relaxed for others, and I accepted that.

Anybody who has raided enough in Ulduar to have experienced the Thorim fight knows that it's relatively hectic. Particularly if you're left in the arena - which, as a Paladin tank, I am - to deal with wave after wave of adds coming down. It's tense and exciting and can be incredibly draining.

The key to success is learning to keep track of everything; something I assume most tanks did a long time ago. What you have available to pick up adds at range at any given time, what adds to expect next, what adds you currently have to deal with, who else in your group has aggro. It's certainly not easy, but there are things to make it easier.

A couple of tips:
1. /console cameradistancemaxfactor 4 should allow you to see the whole of the arena and pick out the important adds immediately when you zoom right out.
2. Save your ranged cooldowns. Exorcism and Avenger's Shield are useful for additional DPS when you're tanking at melee range, but you never know when you'll need one or the other for picking up an add because you have nothing else off cooldown.
3. Have your group stack on top of you in the centre of the arena, and keep consecration up at all times. This should be sufficient to keep threat on the smaller, inconsequential adds.