How to Taunt, etc
Those of you that follow my site on a daily basis or simply wander around at Tankspot.com will know that my site died Feb 4. Basically, I got too much traffic and my hosting provider decided rather than getting more money from me that they’d just cancel my account.
But TankingTips.com is back and it’s time to get back to tank talk again because that’s what this site’s about. It’s not about my life, it’s about your life or in the case of this article, saving others lives. So…
When is it time to Scream and Shout!?
Well we’ve got access to 3 taunt style moves
- Taunt
- Mocking Blow
- Challenging Shout
And most of you are likely using them in that order aren’t you? You are wrong.
The Shout Order
- Taunt
- Challenging Shout
So, yes if taunt is resisted you should be immediately going for Challenging Shout. The reasoning is:
- Mocking Blow can be dodge, parried, missed, resisted, jumped, hidden from, etc (it’s sketchy)
- Switching stances takes time. Time you don’t have.
- The mob often runs through you after a taunt resist. Challenging Shout doesn’t care what direction you are facing.
Proceed with Caution
Yes, obviously Challenging Shout does taunt all the mobs. That being said, this rarely is a bad thing and the cases where it is… well don’t use it! You are a smart tank, use some common sense 
The other Taunt
But our list from above isn’t quite right yet, we’re missing Concussion Blow. It’ll often do the trick just as well as Taunt especially on a mob that’s about to die. For most situations, our new list becomes:
- Taunt
- Concussion Blow
- Challenging Shout
That being said, if you are like me you’ll often be using Concussion Blow fairly aggressively so it’s not always going to be up despite only a 45 second cooldown. If that’s the case then as I said earlier, just go straight to Challenging Shout.
When do I use Mocking Blow then?
- Bloodrage on Cooldown?
- Concussion Blow on Cooldown?
- Shield Slam miss, Shield Slam parry, Shield Slam dodge.
- Front Loading
Instead, Charge into Mocking Blow. This way you don’t have to worry about being rage starved for the pull. That being said remember to use taunt just as Mocking Blow is falling off because undoubtedly your dpsers have been going all out and are about to pull agg. If done right the mob will never actually stop targeting you.
…or the mob is immune to stun. You can throw up a Mocking Blow for the last few seconds required to kill a mob while you move onto the next target. You aren’t going to want to do this with high rage since you’ll lose it all from switching stances. (and with high rage you should be able to keep agg on the primary anyway!)
You know that sinking feeling when you’ve just had like 3 or 4 high aggro moves not hit their target and you just know that no matter how good of behaviour your dps is on (which they rarely ever are) they’ll be pulling agg for sure. Switch it up and throw down a Mocking Blow.
This technique is kinda inconsistent, but it can give you a solid threat boost that’s often worth the risk. Similar to #1 conceptually, just open with Mocking Blow and keep auto-attacking then land a Taunt just as your Mocking Blow is about to fall off. You’ll have a lot of free aggro from the dpsers laying into him and a full rage bar to allow them to keep going all out. (I don’t recommend doing this if Challenging Shout is on cooldown because otherwise a resisted taunt is going to be very bad news for your team)
There is no Perfect Situation
Notoriously, I get this argument out of tanks that they are “saving” Challenging Shout for those bad situations. The reality is that there is no Perfect Situation to use Challenging Shout and more importantly if you don’t aggressively use it then should that mythical “Perfect” situation arise…
You won’t be ready.
Anyway…
I’d like to take this time to say thank you. Many of you may have never even noticed the small window of time (that felt like a giant chasm of time for me) that my site was down, but to you, my loyal reader, it’s you that has made this site worth fighting for, worth writing for and worth just putting time into in general. Thanks for the all wonderful support.
And as always,
Tank Strong and Prosper.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Nice to the site back up and running again! Bit of lurker here but I just wanted to thank you for getting the site back online so quickly.
On topic to this article, I have to admit I do tend to ’save’ challenging shout for those magical circumstances that might arise once an hour at the most, wasting 5 more possible uses of the skill.
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February 6th, 2008 at 4:19 am
Nice post. Never thought about that charge —-> Mocking Blow. And good emphasis on letting the DPS build threat for you. Important concept in multimob tanking.
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February 6th, 2008 at 7:00 am
/point
/salute
/moo
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February 6th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I’ve been a regular reader on your blog for six weeks or so. It contains a lot of good, concise information and I often link to your posts from our guild’s web site. Seeing your site down was a bit distressing as this is one of my regular reads. I’m very pleased to see you up and running again.
On the subject of Challenging Shout after Taunt I tend to fall on the side of “save Challenging Shout”. This is probably because I only run instances with guildies and I know what they are capable of handling.
I use taunt buddy so they know when my taunt is resisted. They also watch Omen so they have a pretty good idea if they are going to pull off me. When a mob gets away:
1) I use my tried and true Tankingtips.com Intervene macro to get into position to protect my overzealous dps by getting agro back.
2) The people I run with all know how to manage this. Mages can ice block, rogues can vanish or stun, hunters feign, priests fade, etc…
I don’t worry about getting the mob back immediately because I play with competent folks. That gives me the luxury of saving my Challenging Shout for those times when one of my CCers dies or we get adds and I need to round up several angry mobs at one time.
And if a rogue pulls agro one too many times on a pull and dies… /meh, his sap was going to break weather he was dead or not. /shrug He took a calculated risk pushing the threat envelope and we’ll res him in a few. I raid with a rogue as well. I know how it works.
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Agree. I always go to Challenging Shout if Taunts fails. It’s simply faster and more convenient. Swapping aggro on Alar is a great example if taunt fails. Very effective through Hyjal trash and some places in BT. I’m a believer that “saving” cooldowns is not always the best idea - re: the last 5% of a boss. Using a Shield Wall or a Last Stand after a string of bad hits at 40% is better than just wiping. Lastly, when multimob tanking, I tend to use Concussion Blow to lock down the mob I’m on, then jump to another target with a Taunt, SS, etc - then proceed to tab target as necessary.
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Glad to see you back up and running. Great article.
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:49 am
There’s a time for both I think. In a one mob situation, CS is your best option if you need threat now. If I can afford to wait for the GCD, I’d rather use mocking on it’s shorter CD.
A multi mob situation is trickier. You don’t want to interrupt what the other tanks are doing with a CS if a mocking blow would do the trick. Having a half dozen mobs running away from their off tanks can cause more confusion than is necessary.
Who gets dodged / parried on mocking blows anyway?
Since it’s a physical attack with a moderate amount of +hit, and expertise capped (on trash mobs with out the ridiculous boss parry rate ) I find that mocking blow is -more- reliable than taunt, since I can gear up to the point where it shouldn’t fail. Unless I’m misunderstanding how mocking blow works. Taunt, since it’s a spell, will always have a chance, and it’s unlikely that you’ll be wearing enough +hit to reach the spell hit cap.
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February 6th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Very well put, and I agree wholeheartedly. I’d also say it’s worthwhile to take it to the next level by keybinding these two abilities so that you can instantly access Challenging Shout after a Taunt fails. My keybinds are set up so that Taunt (E) and Challenging Shout (Mouse thumb button+E) are linked in my muscle memory. When I’m spamming Taunt and get a resist, accessing Challenging Shout is as easy as pushing the mouse thumb button.
An 8-minute CD is nothing and should not be mentally lumped together with 30-minute CDs. It’s ready to go in 2-3 trash pulls in most raids, and can even be used twice in some boss fights, for example. Even if you’re of the mindset that “conserves” 30-minute CDs, don’t conserve Challenging Shout.
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February 6th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Good to see u back up!!! Like McBash, I was a little distraught when i saw the site down… u give very concise and to the point advise and i share it with my fellow guild tanks (I always ensure that i attribute the idea to u tho).
The guild is into SSC and TK right now, but i still enjoy a pug or two for heroics (a little S&M, but hey, I like it)… so I save my challenging shout for the inevitable “I pulled by mistake” from the rogue or “i got feared/kicked into the next mob group, true story” from someone else. Its nice to have that challenging shout ability in the back pocket and ready to go to either grab that group and allow the rest to escape or to take them all down as if we pulled them on purpose.
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February 6th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I check your site nearly everyday for updates or just a quick link to tankspot.com (horrible memory) However i never noticed it go down, just didnt see any updates for a few days.
I’m glad your back up and running, because I must say once I started to read your posts, I have become a much better tank. From the info you and tankspot.com have given me, I’ve been about to progress as far as Hydross and lurker in SSC, as well as nearly all of ZA.
Hurlly Salutes You
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February 6th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I have Mocking Blow??
… just kidding, I was always aware of this ability, just I think I’ve only used it once
…accidentally.
But yes, now you mention it the time you’ll need more taunts is likely in low rage fights, and that’s when switching stances is going to hurt the least. /sigh, time to find room for this bugger on my action bars :-S
I do LOVE using concussion blow though, use it all the time
broken CC, 2nd interrupt, agro-ninjas, damage reduction when multi-tanking
I have to admit I didn’t notice the site was down, which is weird given I check it every morning (australian time) when I come in to work. Just part of my morning routine, lol.
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February 7th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Charge -> Mocking blow
it’s so obvious!
I think I am of the opinion that if the mob is on you, taunt is wasted. I tend to use taunt on mobs that are about to die, even if I have solid amount of threat on the mob. Some people may say this is pointless as the taunt debuff won’t do anything. I guess I just want an insurance.
Nice to see you’re back. I was worried for a minute.
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February 7th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Excellent article as always.
Welcome back.
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February 7th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Boy am I glad your back up. I had a small moment of panic when I received the this site is closed error. I check it almost daily in the morning at work and often pass along your ideas to our guild site by linking to the article.
No matter how much I think I know, Its always important to read more and learn, even relearn.
Great article on taunt, I tend to use it only on multi-mob tanking, I get tired of seeing Immune. That seems to happen more and more with mobs I have to kill. Between the loss of spell reflect, silence, concussion blow and taunt, Im always amazed when I have to do it to save someone and I see the little red marks appear over the mobs head. Im like, “Hey! That guys tauntable!” which probably paints me a noob to some, but the guild understands and is always good for a laugh.
I also tend to save Challenging Shout only for the AOE pulls that happen in Kara (only area I raid right now) right before Moroes. I try to get one AOE pull, as soon as they’re close I pop it and the raid knows you have 6 secs to go nutty, after that, you’re on your own. Besides who cares if the mage dies, they have Ice Block now right?
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February 7th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Yeaaa Vene…glad to see you up and running with a slammin’ good article.
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February 7th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
As always, great article… exactly the type of content I’ve come to expect from www.TankingTips.com.
Well done, and thank you!
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February 7th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
As others have stated, it’s good to see the website back. It’s part of my morning ritual once I get to work.
Others probably use this or something similar, but I have an easy Mocking Blow macro button that’s handy for a quick secondary taunt if the regular Taunt is resisted or something else.
#show Mocking Blow
/cast [stance:1] Berserker Stance; Mocking Blow
/cast [stance:2] Defensive Stance
I’ve found it a lot easier to use this way and have saved many squishies when a mob takes interest in them.
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February 9th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Good tips on the taunts, Vene.
Glad to see your site is back up & running, too. It’s a pleasure to read your articles, thank you.
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February 11th, 2008 at 5:21 am
**TEST YOUR TANK ABILITIES**
Just a crazy tidbit I thought would fit in here since “taunt” played a very large roll in the success. How many of you fantastic tanks would attempt a Heroic Underbog run with a level 64 holy/disc priest and a level 69 BM hunter?
Veneretio did just that. Complete UB run, since the 64 would agro from the portal, in less than 90 minutes. Two deaths, no wipes.
/cheers
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February 11th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Heroic’s have really dropped off substantially in difficulty.
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February 14th, 2008 at 8:48 am
/hug Vene
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February 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
wow, nice! I never would’ve even thought of doing a heroic with people less than 70. I guess it’s possible now though, with the new honoured requirement I think I was attuned to heroic CE on my warrior at 61.
If we’re sharing tanking feats involving a LOT of taunting however, I’ve got a less impressive but more amusing one - I recently tanked all the trash leading up to attumen with Salv on :S
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