Okay so there's some baddies in front of you. Oh man that one looks like it has blood dripping from it's fangs. It is Scary Time™. You are a brand new tank, or maybe a not so brand new tank who is timid and meek after weeks of abuse at the hands of crazy dps who are waiting for you to get aggro in the first millisecond of the pull. You Charge in, and you can already see a bolt whizzing past your head to attack before you've even made it there. What do you do?
DON'T PANIC.
That's the first step to tanking and playing the game in general. Panicking will cause you to do the wrong thing or make things worse. Essentially I'm going to break down the essentials of both pulling and holding aggro, and talk about how, for warriors in particular, it is more of an art form that one learns and hones over time, rather than a clinical, dead process like paladin tanking. Warrior tanking is generally considered to be the hardest but most interesting form of tanking, and for good reason, some of which we'll get into as we go along. So without further ado, let's start.
Pulling
There are many ways to pull, some better than others. Different situations call for different forms. I'll break them down so they're easier to read here.
Facepull: Generally considered the worst way to pull something, usually utilized by overzealous dps or healers on auto-walk. Basically it's when someone walks too close to the mobs and they come and make him very dead. The total threat caused by this pull can be offset by a heal or a stiff breeze.
Throw or Shoot Pull: Another pretty bad way to pull. Shooting one's gun or bow or throwing a sharp stick at the enemy will bring them to you, just pray no one looks at the mobs funny on their way to you or else they'll turn on them instead. Still, it is slightly better than the Facepull.
Charge/Thunderclap: This is currently the best way to pull a group of mobs, Charge in to the spell caster, wait half a second for the melee mobs to get within range, and Thunder Clap them all to you. What you do afterward will be covered in the Holding Aggro segment.
Single Target Combo: This is a method I've developed for pulling bosses, I find it avoids the odd positioning issues that Charge tends to create on unstunnable bosses, it also avoids Charging out of range of healers. As you run in, Heroic Throw the boss, and then immediately Taunt and pop Bloodrage at the same time. Based on how close the boss is at this time and how close behind you your healers are, you may choose to also Charge in. All these things combined will create the highest amount of threat on a boss in the shortest amount of time, and Bloodrage will give you a lot of initial rage. In fact, I use Bloodrage all the time, and I encourage you to as well.
Pulls can as a whole be a mixture of any of the above methods, but the last two are the most effective for early aggro. Now I will get into general aggro holding.
Holding Aggro
Unlike paladin tanks, warriors do not have a set rotation to maintain threat. Currently our AoE threat is generally reliant on our ability to critically hit with abilities like Thunderclap and Devastate, thus applying bleed effects on our targets via the Deep Wounds talent. This is not an effective method of tanking, as it relies on critical hits, something tanks don't exactly swim in, and also it only applies bleed effect threat, which is minuscule. However it does help, and until we are given more effective methods (or rather, the other classes overpowered methods are nerfed), we generally use other methods to augment our aggro. For example, in the first few seconds of a pull, after the initial Charge and Thunderclap application, there are two options to decide between: Shockwave, or Shield Block. I more often than not will hit Shockwave and once the stun is ending I pop Shield Block. Shield Block may seem like a purely defensive ability, but most warrior tanks will be specced into Damage Shield, which combined with Shield Block will cause more effective damage overall. Also, this ability can critically hit, thus proccing Deep Wounds. While these abilities are good starters, if you've got dps hitting something that you aren't targeting, no amount of Thunderclaps and Damage Shields will help you. You must react and respond to the moment, the greatest strength of the Warrior tank.
Glyphing is an integral part of AoE tanking for a warrior, as we have several glyphs that enable us to strike more mobs than before. I would personally recommend the glyphs of Sunder Armor, Blocking, and Cleaving, for their multiple target capabilities. Being aware of the threat on every mob you're facing is important, and unfortunately, add-ons such as Omen can only show threat on a single mob at once. Which is where ThreatPlates comes in. I mentioned this add-on before so I won't go into it, suffice to say it helps me tank fifty mobs at once more effectively than I did before I got it. Also keep in mind that one must be checking up on every mob's threat constantly by either clicking or tab-targetting to better know which mob to focus on.
General Tanking Tips
- Keep in mind accidental overpulls are manageable by more than Thunderclap by abilities such as Shockwave, Challenging Shout, or even Demoralizing Shout.
- Remember that due to Armored to the Teeth, armor is effectively a threat and mitigation stat, and I could not recommend stacking it more. Its great and provides you with more effective attack power than you'll need. I stack it at the cost of dull stamina trinkets.
- When moving into a group with a caster, take Gag Order, and Heroic Throw the caster so he will run into melee range of you. After that, or if there is more than one caster in a group, pop Spell Reflection as often as you can to get aggro on something that may not be in your group, or doesn't kite well.
- If you overgear content, pop cooldowns whenever you make large pulls. The healer may not be as geared as you, and what are you saving them for anyway?
- If your dps are out-threatening you, run far ahead of them. Charge often, keep moving, and generally be annoying. The earlier you hit your targets, the more time you have to build threat. Kiting them to the next mob pack will make you seem like you're moving fast and getting the tedium of heroic grinding out of the way, but what you are in actuality doing is making high threat abilities like Volley and Seed of Corruption do less damage, and therefore less threat.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next entry for: Less Talents Means More Variety.
