Post by djtakuya
I'll start by first linking my
Armory. My problem is simple. I feel like I've stopped growing as a tank, and I sometimes have trouble with things I don't think I should. I want to improve my tanking so I don't feel like I'm banging my head against the wall everytime I try to run an instance for Valor Points. My main talking points will be optimizing threat generation, how to mark mobs, and keybinds.
First, and probably easiest to remedy, I'd imagine, is my threat generation. I sometimes have trouble grabbing the initial aggro and as a result, the pull looks spastic and threat can be split among several other members of my 5-man group and this happens to most people I group with, from my server, guild or the random dungeon finder. So, I want to optimize the threat I generate from the get-go. Now, I am starting off in a basic pack with Rend, then Thunder Clap, following up with Shield Slam macro'd with Shield Block once and then whenever the cooldown and/or proc is up using Revenge procs whenever they, too are up. That's my general process if the pull is going like it should. If I am losing aggro on one mob, I try to tab or click to target it and use Shield Slam if it's up or my Devastate/Heroic Strike macro until it's targeting me again. One question there is should I be Taunting? If it's a CC pull, like the packs leading up to the bear boss in ZA, I always go for the burn target first, kite him away from the CC'd targets, put up Rend, and try to Blood and Thunder my way to victory there, using a Devastate/Cleave macro and Demo Shout. For bosses, I shout, Heroic Throw, charge, start out with either Rend or Shield Slam, then put up all the debuffs and spam Dev/HS and SS if threat starts to dip. I know Shockwave could be of more use to me in bigger packs, like the lynxes in ZA, and I want to know how and when is best to use it. Please, if any of this is holding me back, tell me and say it bluntly.
Secondly, marking mobs for the pull. I plain and simple have no experience with marking mobs, and I only have a basic grasp of the kinds of CC available. To use ZA as an example again, on the last pack of trash before the Dragonhawk boss, I usually don't know which mobs we should CC or who can/should do it. To add to that, I can't work out a good way to communicate which marks are for what without alienating my group. I don' t want to be that tank who pushes others around. I would like to set up some keybinds that would let me mark easily. I feel this would be most effective with marking skulls to burn targets to avoid everyone dpsing their own targets, but I know it doesn't work well with macro'ing the skull to whatever I hit with Rend, because if the pull starts to go wrong, the skull will jump to whichever target is on another player. Any tips for setting up a system of what mark is what CC, or communicating that to a group will be very appreciated.
Lastly, I want to talk about my keybinds. Bear with me, because this will be extensive and I will try not to be verbose. I have a five button mouse and along with shift and alt modifiers, I mapped my Rend, Dev/HS, SB/SS, TC, Shockwave, Dev/Cleave, Demo Shout, and Charge, Intercept, Intervene and Heroic Leap to it, using the single target spells on the unmodified, AoE spells on Alt, and mobility on Shift. My defensive cooldowns are on 1-6 in the order of: Trinkets, Stoneform, Shield Wall, Last Stand, Berserker Rage macro'd with Enraged Regeneration, and Inner Rage. I use Z through N on the bottom row of my keyboard for, in order: Victory Rush, Intimidating Shout, Challenging Shout, Pummel, Spell Reflect, and Retaliation. Heroic Throw is over on R, Revenge is Alt+F, Taunt is on T, Commanding Shout is on Y, and Battle Shout is on U. Perhaps I could try forever and never find the perfect combination or map of keybinds, or maybe someone else has alreayd mapped it perfectly for us both, I don't know. I am telling you all of this in the hopes that you have some constructive criticism for how I've laid out my abilities on the keys I have.
So, I've found some flaws with how I play, and I want to work them out but I need some other opinions to do this. To summarize, I probably need a deeper understanding of my abilities, a deeper understanding of marks and CC and how to execute them, and what makes an ideal keybind. I look forward to seeing what you learned warriors have to say about all this. I hope I've provided enough information for y'all to show me where I'm going wrong. Thanks in advance and I hope I can return the favor for y'all!
Post by marklartank
lots of good tips there. adding to it:
armory:
- you are putting 20 mastery/30 stam gems in your BS sockets, but those should be 40 or 67 mastery.
- on your helm, you had more base dodge than parry, so you should have reforged dodge to mastery.
- bracers, go dodge -> mastery
- earthen guardian is not very good - i'd replace both your trinkets with license to slay and the TB trinket.
to answer your question, shockwave is awesome. the only time to avoid it is when you're low on rage since it will stun everything and rage-starve you. otherwise, keep it on cooldown every pull.
revenge > SS or devastate on multi-mob pulls. you should not be using HS at all on trash packs. except for single-target boss fights, you should dump rage with cleave in 5-mans. and yes, use taunt if you lose mobs. Tidy Plates with the Threat Plates theme is probably one of the most helpful add-ons you will find for 5-man tanking.
in ZA, the only thing that really needs CC is the flame casters. when the CC is broken, be sure and target them and save SS so you can knock their buff off (don't count on randoms to purge/dispell/spellsteal).
what do you use your mouse wheel for? i use mouse up for next target and mouse down for previous target (no more tabbing).
also, asking for CC is not pushing others around. mark before the pull and wait for the CC to go off. as the tank, you are expected to take the lead in the instance. it's pretty easy to fulfill that role without being a jerk, and it's much worse to be a "weak" tank who is not comfortable taking charge.