The 3 Pillars of a Great Tank
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Confidence
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Relevance
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Dedication
a. Faith
“Do you believe in your team? Do you believe in yourself?”
Rarely, if ever, does a boss die if you don’t think its possible to kill. Rarely, if ever, will you find where you need to go if you think you are lost.
a. Ventrilo/Teamspeak
“Before you say something be sure that whatever you say is better than silence.”
Knowing what is important to say on vent. Knowing what matters to the raid.
b. Trust
“The Art of NOT Tanking.”
Knowing when to let the mob run past and trust that the sheep will be cast. Knowing that the DPS can finish off the mob and that your taunt should be saved for the mob that might break CC.
a. Cup Holders, AC, Automatic Locks
“Today’s weapons are Yesterday’s weapons with Cup Holders.”
Getting the best enchant, the best jewel to socket your gear may not make the biggest difference to the fight, but it will make your team believe that you’ve done everything you can to make the ride as enjoyable as possible.
b. Having the Best
“The key to finding a Needle in a Haystack is never stopping until you find it.”
No matter how long the quest or long shot of drop-rate, are you searching?. Every time you sign on do you take a look at your gear and say… “How can it improve?”
July 16th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Well said.
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July 16th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Awesome post! I put a lot of value on confidence in myself. I’m not sure if this is particular to girls on teh internets, but I’ve often found myself doubting my abilities when I really shouldn’t have. And I’ve always performed better in raids or 5 mans when the confidence (or faith in my ability) was there.
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July 17th, 2007 at 4:56 am
1st Pillar- Troll
2nd Pillar- Beserking
3rd Pillar- DO ME HAM
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July 17th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
You are never going to let me live down the “except trolls” post ever are you lol.
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July 17th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
i think there are exceptions to maxing out your jewels/enchants
for instance i had grom’tors charge for around a month before i got KD - but i never considered putting mongoose on it because i simply didnt think it was worth it
or my felsteel leggings.. 30stam 10agil was good enough imo
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July 17th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
btw very nice post
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July 17th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I’m always “maxing out” my gear… this is why I’m always broke.
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Thorden reply on June 29, 2008 10:57 pm:
The unspoken virtue of most tanks…the ability to have all the consumables, best enchants, best gems, etc…and still have money for repairs.
Even harder than it sounds sometimes…especially when you are MT learning a new instance!
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November 5th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
excellent post makes more sense than any other ive read
thanks!
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November 5th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Have to agree with Hammy and Grimgorr
For a while i’ve wanted to hide that i’m a girl while tanking because you’re going to have those jerks that think girls can’t tank. Even was in a pug where everyone was talking my tanking skills up… for some reason we didn’t use voicechat until the middle. After I talked on vent once, our druid healer started pulling ahead of me -_-
But i’ve gotten to the point where I know i’m a good tank and I don’t care about hiding my gender.
And… i’m always broke, particularly cuz i’m a MT now… can you say fort. flasks?
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November 6th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Opinions based purely on gender are nonsense, there are a lot of fantastic girl players and there are plenty of ridiculously incompetent guys.
And yes, definitely agree on the confidence thing. My warrior just hit 70 a couple of days ago (yay!) and I’ve gotten quite a few comments on how well I’m going (a rival raiding guild even tried to poach me, lol) but 80% of that is just knowing the tactics and instances from having played my hunter - being confident enough to mark all the targets, remind people to stick to set kill orders etc. The other 20% was Nihilum forums and tankingtips.com
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December 5th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
wow. didn’t know gender bias existed in video games even. Anyways, who the heck cares? As long as you have confidence in your decisions, you will be trusted as the tank (regardless of gender) and things tend to work themselves out. For me, it really helped me being a holy priest for the past year and a half before switching to tank (opposite faction). I know what healers tend to do and what it means to be in LOS. This helps on low pop servers where the only thing spammed in LFG is “LF(X)M healer/tank”.
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Just on the sex topic, I have started our 1st kara team. One of the most reliable, competent and aware players is a female rogue. Go girls and the people that doubt you are fools.
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