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.