15 February 2010

Tanks Don't Have Threat Cooldowns.

Oh, but how I wish we did. I suppose if we did, however, all tanks would just pop it every time it was up and the whole point of being a tank would be significantly reduced. Let me state right now that for most tanks in a raid setting, 99% of the time, threat is a non-issue. But this entry isn't about those 99% of the times, this entry is about the 1% where things get a little stressful. In certain situations where the enrage timer is creeping up, or in a fight like Sartharion 3D where the maximum amount of damage must be inflicted before the tank dies, the dps is pulling everything they've got, boosted by the power of Heroism/Bloodlust. It's in these desperate situations that accidents happen. The warlock or hunter (it's always one of the two, or in rare cases, a boomkin) is easily pushing 9k-10k tps, the tank has literally just pulled, and he's got to top the threat of extreme dps, with a nearly empty rage bar. Nor is the option to not blast away available. There's a strict timer, and there's no hope of beating it without this method. What does the tank do?

Unfortunately, not a whole lot. That seems to be the problem, there are no threat cooldowns. All cooldowns available to a tank are survival based. Which is fine, I'd rather have more survival than threat for almost every situation. What good is extra threat if you're dead? It's just in these situations that it gets difficult. I write this entry not for advice for tanks, but mostly for the problematic dps that have high levels of threat through no fault of their own. Everyone knows hunters have ridiculously high threat output. What it seems is that not every hunter knows about his Feign Death and Misdirection abilities. I'm not here to tell people how to play their classes, of course. But in an extreme burn-down situation, where threat might be slipping away from you, it might behoove the tank to ask the dps to pop their threat reducing abilities when and where they can. Again, most situations won't be a problem due to modern raiding's high level of mobility, but if they are catching up, as they run out fire, it wouldn't be too much to ask that they pop Soulshatter or Feint. It's really up to the tank to ask the dps for this favor. Sure it benefits the whole raid, but even on my mage I often forget to keep my aggro down in the tunnel-vision of being max dps. They might need a friendly reminder.

That being said, just make sure the dps you roll with are aware that there is no magic Tank Button that you push to gain infinite threat times a billion, especially in the beginning of a fight. As the tank, there is little you can do yourself to reduce their aggro, besides actually putting Vigilance on a dps for once (if you're a warrior), and making the raid aware that maybe one should pop Heroism a few seconds after the fight starts, not right as it starts.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next entry for: Stamina Trinket Tanks Are Only Fooling Themselves.

11 February 2010

Vigilance Is The Best Tanking Ability In The Game.

Ok maybe I'm a little biased because I play a warrior tank, but I'm being completely honest in my statement that Vigilance is the best tanking ability available in World of Warcraft. But not for the reasons that most people would assume. See the world I envision is a world where most tanks merely see the threat reduction aspect of the ability. Put it on an overzealous hunter or warlock and you can keep him from getting his own trigger-happy self killed (however tempting it is to just let him die). Oh that's all fine and good in a five-man heroic. But in a raid setting, Vigilance takes on a beautiful new aspect I don't think a lot of people consider. Put Vigilance on a tank.

Sounds crazy doesn't it? I know.

Hopefully I'm getting the sarcasm across.

I've actually gotten a lot of anger from fellow tanks who only see the drain to their threat and remove it. I can wholeheartedly inform you that these tanks have no idea what they are doing and they have no business being tanks. Please direct them to this entry.

Now I'll break down exactly why Vigilance is so good, to those who don't believe me. Let's focus on the 3% damage reduction first. This one is pretty much a no-brainer. Who is taking the most damage in any given raid environment and therefore would need any sort of reduction to damage they can get? The healer tank! Damage reduction is the boon of all tanks, in fact, we go through incredible lengths to get it, even passing on Tier gear to obtain more of it. There's a stat that every tank is clamoring for, especially in Icecrown that also has a reduce damage effect, it's called armor. That's right, I've done some calculations and estimated that 3% damage reduction is roughly equivalent to a four thousand armor buff! That's enough armor for any tank of any class to beg for Vigilance to be put on them. Now I don't know if Vigilance's damage reduction is against magic damage too, but if it is, it's even better.

As for the Taunt cooldown, this is the ultimate and best feature of Vigilance, it's what separates it from the rather lackluster Blessing of Sanctuary. Having a Taunt with an almost non-existent cooldown is the saving feature of a raid. Who is the one person in a raid who is constantly getting bashed in the face by giant hell-demons, and therefore creating the most opportunity for Taunt to refresh? The tank again! Putting Vigilance on a DPS will ensure that refresh never gets used, and you're wasting a lot of opportunity. The cooldown of Taunt is long. Agonizingly long. Eight seconds is really really painful to watch a mob run around freely if you're too low on the threat table for some reason. Even if you have the Tier-9 2-piece set bonus, six seconds is still hard to not have Taunt in a panic situation. A Taunt on constant refresh is a god-send in any raid environment, and to not have it on a tank (the only person reliably getting hit) is foolish.

The Taunt effect of Vigilance goes through the roof in the event there are two warrior tanks in a raid. When they Vigilance each other, not only are both tanks getting 3% damage reduction, but the Taunt refresh is nearly instantaneous for both tanks as well. This makes several raid situations much simpler for the two of them. Tank swapping, compensating for missed Taunts, fixing accidental dual-Taunting, all these and other tanking mistakes are instantly fixed for a warrior tank team. The mark of a good tank is rarely his threat output or even his hit points, but purely his ability to deal with a bad situation and save a raid from a wipe. Never having to worry about Taunt being on cooldown will make any warrior tank be a hero to his raid team. Warrior tanks, welcome the chance to raid with each other as an opportunity to show off the power of having two warrior tanks in a raid team.

Finally, let's address the issue of the threat reduction of Vigilance. The question is: what issue? Any tank should be blasting through threat so fast no one has a hope of catching up to him. But for the sake of argument, let's assume some hunter or mage isn't paying attention and inadvertently passes you on threat. What can a tank do to fix this problem? Easy, let him die. It is not your responsibility to save some fool DPS from committing suicide all he wants. Most DPS have an aggro dump, and they should be using it. If a single DPS is consistently pulling aggro, and it's causing problems for the raid, what does the raid leader do to fix the problem? He either tells the DPS to watch his threat, or he kicks him from the raid. This is not the tank's problem. Lastly, in 99.99% of all situations, a 10-15% aggro reduction for any tank is not going to be a big deal. They can handle it. It's not like the threat is disappearing into space, it's going to the warrior. Don't forget that modern raiding is very mobile and most DPS either have to switch targets at some point or move a lot, providing you with enough time to stay ahead in threat. This minute aggro reduction isn't nearly enough to cause problems. Except in a single situation I'll be addressing in the next entry.

So all considering, the damage reduction equivalent to four thousand armor and the instant cool down on Taunt, make Vigilance one of if not the most powerful tanking ability in the whole game. As long as it's applied to another tank. Two warrior tanks means it's even better. So feel free to put it on a DPS if you want, but you are seriously doing yourself and the raid a disservice by not providing the buff to a member who could really use it. I consider Vigilance to be a nerf if one feels the need to apply it to a DPS. He should be embarrassed he got Vigilanced cause it means he is incapable of controlling his threat through normal means. I call it the Vigilance of Shame. So in my mind it's a nerf if applied to a DPS, a buff if applied to a tank. As for tanks who don't think they want it on them because of the threat reduction, ask them if the tiny 10% reduction is that big a deal, and would they prefer it if you main tanked since they seem to be having problems with threat. Any tank should be ecstatic to get Vigilance on them, and the warrior who put it on would be even more happy.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next entry for: Tanks Don't Have Threat Cooldowns.

EDIT 3/14/2010: Upon applying Vigilance to a fellow warrior tank and explaining the reasoning why, he proceeded to take it off and inform me that it does not stack with a discipline priest's Renewed Hope damage reduction. Unsure at the time, I did some research and can conclude that Vigilance's damage reduction does indeed stack with every single damage reduction buff available except Blessing of Sanctuary. So a paladin may not appreciate a Vigilance but every other tank should. Trying to understand the other warrior tank's point of view, I attempted to show him the advantages of the buff by demonstrating the unlimited Taunt capability of the dual-buffing. He responded he did not foresee a lot of taunting in the raid. Unable to argue with that bafflingly flawed logic, I conceded the topic and let him go unbuffed. It seems this tank only taunts when his schedule allows for it.