Loading ...Stop waiting to use Thunderclap
Thunderclap is a warrior’s best way to easily generate threat on multiple targets and using it just 1 time at the start of a pull can make a massive difference in terms of how easy a group of mobs is to move around as well as maintain aggro on.
So why are you waiting to use it!?
But the sheep is too slow, I’ll break it!
But the seduce is too slow, I’ll break it!
But the sleep is too slow, I’ll break it!
But the shackle is too slow, I’ll break it!
So what… do it anyway.
1 of the following 3 situations is going to happen if you stop worrying about CC and just Thunderclap immediately after a pull.
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Faster CC
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CCx2
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Sneaky TC
Your teammates will learn to crowd control faster after you pull (or will learn to do it at the same time as you pull). Overall this is going to make your life infinitely easier when tanking multiple mobs.
The people crowd controlling will have to CC twice. This really isn’t the end of the world. You should easily be able to survive a set of hits from the team you are tanking, you’ll have more rage for tanking the mobs you do have to tank and you’ll have threat on the CCed mobs so they’ll go towards you instead of towards the people that CCed them if they break early.
You’ll manage to sneak in a Thunderclap just before CC happens. All the benefits of the above example with the added bonus of not having to listen to CCers complaining about you breaking their sheeps, shackles, etc.
It really is all about making the best of a bad situation. Ideally, Crowd Control should always be fast enough that you don’t have to worry about Thunderclapping CCed mobs by accident, but I think you and I both know that as tanks we rarely get to deal with ideal situations.
Warning: This is not about proving a Point
If you only have one mob to tank, then don’t do this. If one of the mobs coming in can fear everyone (or even just you), then don’t do this. This is not about training your CCers to CC faster. (although that’s not a terrible side effect of it) This is not about wiping the group to prove a point. (because this is a terrible side effect of overusing this) It’s about making the best of your hand with the cards you are dealt. You have to get into the mindset when you use this technique that situation #2 (CCx2) is always going to happen, but the skill is when you know the pulls where situation #2 really isn’t that bad. Most of the time when you are tanking, you create your own bad situation. (this is why when you run with a good tank everything looks so easy and why a weak tank can make an easy run look so hard) So rather than trying to avoid or wait for CC and nearly killing your healer before the pull has even started, just start tanking and let the CCers worry about CC.
After all, it’s their job not yours.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Question Do you always use bloodrage to get rage before a pull or do you have rage potions with you at all times?
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October 30th, 2007 at 3:23 am
I use bloodrage a second after the pull, and then some time bandage up the health loss. That gives me just enough initial threat for the healers not to get healing aggro when i’m picking up all the adds
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October 30th, 2007 at 5:14 am
I cant count the times that I am almost standing in the frost trap and have critters around my feet going ‘baaaa’. I have had cc’ers telling me not to tank the mobs around their cc’s instead of moving them out of the kill zone andd cc em there.
Now adays I usually state at start that ‘this is the kill zone’ no cc’s in here. Wand and sheep seems too difficult for some players though…
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October 30th, 2007 at 6:51 am
@Lance: I usually pull quick enough so that I don’t need Bloodrage, but I definitely always try to Bloodrage at the start of the pull when its available. Once upon a time, I used Rage potions quite a bit. They are amazing and I really should get back in the habit of using them. (for 5 mans especially they are a god send, even just the little ones)
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Shivan reply on June 9, 2008 1:30 pm:
That is actually something that I have wondered about for a while. I made some on an alt and sent the to my main and loved them but just never think about doing it. Never see them at the AH and wondered if other tanks use them.
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October 30th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Kind of off topic but something I’m very interested in and couldn’t find a more appropriate place to ask, so I apologize in advance…….
Veneretio, I was looking at your armory and noticed that our gear is kind of similar. I’m just about to get the Auto Blocker today, and have been messing around with different gear combinations to maintain 490 defense by using it. The only way I can do it is by taking off Farstrders cloak and putting on Devilshark which I really hate to do
I noticed in your armory that you are at 482 defense with a very similar setup to which I would like to use. My question is, do you raid with under 490 defense? Or is that just some type of solo/questing setup. I know 490 defense makes you immune to crits, and that’s why I couldn’t imagine you raiding without 490.
I’m starting to think that maybe at this time getting the auto blocker is going to be a waste and I should save up for the new heroic badge legs that come with 2.3. By trying to use the autoblocker my EH is going to take a pretty significant dump.
Awesome blog, thanks for all the tips!
BTW here is my armory:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Alleria&n=Gajanana#
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October 30th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Thanks for the comment Gajanana for future reference feel free to ask a question via the “Ask a Question” form on the homepage.
Read this post:
http://www.tankingtips.com/2007/09/12/5-ways-to-combine-resilience-and-defense/
The reason I can use less than 490 defense and still be uncrittable is b/c my shield offers 31 resilience. I could go as low as 471 in fact if I so desired it. What you are currently looking at regarding my gear is kinda what I use for Heroics. I actually muck around with my Cape and Trinkets a lot. Farstriders is on quite a bit of the time and I’ll often sport Moroes Pocket Watch for raiding b/c I love the usage. That being said I use Auto-Block 95% of the time. It’s simply that good and even once the new 2.3 badge items are out I still recommend its the first piece of buy.
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October 30th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
I remember a hunter’s signature I saw on the official forums that went something along the lines of, “There is no badly timed Multi-Shot, only slow CC”. Obviously there’s less need to use MS than TC, but it does make a similar point, people should stop whinging about their CC getting broken when they put it in line of fire, and I agree completely. When I’m on my hunter if I put my trap at the tank’s feet and it got broken I’d consider it my fault.
Most people just have no idea what’s involved in tanking, simple as that.
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October 30th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
/agree with all. Dont want your CC broke get it away from where Im tanking. I tell my ppl to watch for when I pop blood rage and be ready 3 seconds later. Had some mages complain about slow casting time etc.
Solution to that , cast early or get familiar enough with cast time to know whats safe. They dont have to start casting as soon as you pull, they can wait a bit tooI prefer a late sheep to an early one. I will move my target around to get the best vantage point, give melee room etc. I like to spin my targets so the group has their back and I can see whats going on. That way if I have to intv/inter I can see where im headed and why.
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October 31st, 2007 at 8:11 am
Another thing that stinks about slow CC is, TC or no…as a warrior we have to tab-target a lot in order to effectively multi-mob tank. I hate backing a group up that I just pulled and watching my sheep/seduce/shackle-marked target run around in my little pile while I’m hoping the next tab won’t target it. Then again…you get pretty good at guessing where your next tab will go that way.
Besides, like Vene said, I don’t necessarily mind having to tank more mobs…that just means more rage for me! ^_^
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November 1st, 2007 at 7:43 pm
The smart people that CC will cast during or straight after the pull. Anything thats at your feet, clap and cleave away. You rather have agro on all then be loosing mob because you were trying to avoid a sheep. If they start QQing tell them you have 100 more important things to worry about then them not being able to CC or reCC.
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November 5th, 2007 at 11:42 am
When I have hunter/mage, I try to always make them pull/cc on their side while I pull on another side, so cc target move out of the group and are often well visible to keep an eye on it, in case they break early. Having CC target well seperated it’s just easier to spam TC when needed.
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January 4th, 2008 at 11:05 am
This might be slightly off-topic, so I apologize…
Tara mentioned tab-targetting, which is really the only way I know how to handle multiple mobs. For the most part, in a moderately confined area with a group of mobs, tab-targetting through the group works well.
But there are cases where: (a) the room is somewhat large, and (b) there are multiple groups that are not linked… and tab-targetting through the group in question targets mobs that are half-way across the room. This is a real headache, as it involves further tabbing to eventually settle on the mobs near me that I want to target. This extra tabbing through unwanted, distant mobs eats precious seconds that I could be using to generate threat, rage, and aggro.
Is there a way to reduce the “tab distance”, so that only proximate mobs are selected when I tab-target? Or is this basically a L2P thing that I need to work on?
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January 4th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Here ya go Cimm
/script SetCVar(”TargetNearestDistance”, 10)
/targetenemy [harm,nodead]
/script SetCVar(”TargetNearestDistance”, 41)
I haven’t used it to be honest, but I’ve read a lot about tanks swearing by it. Likely you just need to bind it to your Tab key and give it a whirl.
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March 2nd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
At some reactions here:
‘Wand and sheep seems too difficult for some players though’
Indeed it’s very difficult. I play endgame human tank and a endgame belf mage, I can assure you that (for example) pulling with a wand is not a good idea in most of the heroic. Mages in PvE gear hardly top 8k HP, which those mobs hit. 1 resist is party wipe.
Sheeping sooner is an option tho.. but as tank i experience it easiest to just move backwards after CC or onto another good clear spot.
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May 6th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
On this topic i usually also tell CCers to CC out of my kill zone, and just tank what ever i can if they dont understand what it is.
another thing i like to do is if i can and im noticing the Ccer being lazy at CCing fast i do shoot pull and run to meet the mobs and TC, then i back out again with the rest of the grp since at that time the CC should be secure there. but i try to let the CCer start there CCing just as i shoot, so that just as my shot hits the CC is done this ofc would be in the case of having a mage doing sheep when i have a mage and rogue i like to shoot ASAP when rogue does his sapp, and try to have mt mages awake enough to sheep with me…mostly it dont happen so i do the first tactic to get the sheep somewhwere else
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