Comments on: Heroic Strike, More than a Rage Dump

By: Dragonfell

Dragonfell — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:34:40 +0000

Well before any major pull dont forget it is possible to now proc retaliation as this no longer wastes your shield wall I am in fact amazed at how many tanks are over looking this skill as a major threat initilizer.

By: Khrushchev

Khrushchev — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:50:56 +0000

Heh. Thanks. I guess I should have mentioned though that this is only effective against trash for the most part. I’ve never noticed if it dazes bosses or not as I’m typically too focused on my stupid GCD indicator to notice much else.

By: MadTanker

MadTanker — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:27:08 +0000

I think Khrushchev has (one of) the best use for Hs here. I’m definatly gonna start emplimenting it. Great way to amp threat and utilize HS’s non global. But it seems to me the majority of the Tanks here agree HS is not just an aggro dump, esspecially for high end raid with dps’rs in plain sick gear. Aggro doesnt scale like T-6 dps, esspecially with these new epic gems.

By: Khrushchev

Khrushchev — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:10:17 +0000

I don’t use Shield Bash too terribly much, but I like to macro HS in with Shield Bash. Rank 4 shield bash dazes the target and HS ranks 10 and 11 cause extra damage versus dazed targets. That’s not the only time I use HS obviously, but I always make sure I use it in conjunction with shield bash.

By: Archfiend

Archfiend — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:39:32 +0000

Dunno how obvious to everyone else this may be, but I’ve long been in the habit of queuing up a heroic strike any time I hit revenge. With improved heroic strike and focused rage, you’re getting a nice threat burst for the low cost of 11 rage (and whatever you would have generated on your next swing). I tend to over-use heroic strike - I’ll get into situations where my incoming damage is high enough for me to happily spam my abilities, and then before I know it, my rage bar is too low for my next shield slam… but it’s a very rare occasion when I can’t fit an extra HS in with a revenge.

On a side note, it made me a little sad to hear from a good friend of mine and a fellow tank that he thought heroic strike as absolutely worthless, and I couldn’t even begin to explain to him its value - he just cut me off altogether… and yet, I don’t think anyone would deny the value of heroic strike’s big brother, cleave.

By: Bacara

Bacara — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:35:22 +0000

I’ll be honest, I used to *hate* having to worry about one more spell (lol) to cast when I first started tanking raid content (I never did it pre-BC).

Around the time the third tier of badge loot (Sunwell content) was released, I found that I increasingly had to “push the limits” of my old TPS rotation.

I basically was slowing down a raid. Sure, I was holding aggro, but the more and more people were improving their DPS while I pretty much grew complacent.

One day I decided to give Heroic Strike a shot. My TPS jumped up 300+ points. My Karazhan trash clearing was reduced by easily 20+ minutes each time. Five-mans were even more cake than before. Omen didn’t lie, I was doubling threat above the next man.

The most convincing thing though was this: I rarely have to Taunt anymore.

If you’re a tank and are lazy like I was, you’re only handicapping yourself by not utilizing HS.

Beware though: As Vene points out, careful to not over-HS (especially in a 5-man) but also make sure you’re Hit Rating and Expertise are tip-top shape… blown rage on multiple parries/misses makes you look bad. And you’ll probably eat a repair bill too boot…

By: Bo

Bo — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:37:01 +0000

Personally, I always spec into Imp HS. When a devestate + heroic strike only costs you 18 rage you end up being able to use it almost as quick as you can hit the keys. Also I throw in a heroic strike just about every time I’m doing a non threat generating move that uses the global cooldown. It works wonders in my opinion. Plus if you find yourself having to dps as prot it gives very large gains if you took Imp HS.

By: Kachra

Kachra — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:42:48 +0000

Speaking of keeping things off topic, there’s nothing wrong with using heroic strike as the rage dump we’ve all been trained to use it for: when you’re tanking one mob and you don’t want to waste any incoming rage. Turn it all into threat!

Anyway, now I’m just being picky. Another insightful article vene. All warrior abilities (including taunt and heroic strike) have their sneaky, non-nonstandard uses as well. In the past I’ve mostly used heroic strike to keep globals free or to build threat when my globals are all being used. *cough* shattered halls *cough* I usually don’t like to take chances with my threat, but having read your article I can definitely see times when heroic striking will work out better in the long run. Statistically speaking anyway.

By: Rochelle

Rochelle — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:06:32 +0000

I feel like most of the time I am the one leading or at least helping discussion stray off topic. But like you said, there are multiple articles on taunt and they all have their own discussions attached. But this is the first one I have seen about HS

By: Vegaveil

Vegaveil — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:43:17 +0000

Careful when you criticize the useage of taunt mid fight, because there is a valid reason for it.

If I see that a DPSer has passed me on threat but not “pull threat” taunt will immediately match that DPSer’s aggro and my next attack will put me over the top, also setting a new mark for the “pull threat” level.

Or in the same scenario, (if spec’d) I will use concussion blow (for reason of interupt) on a mob, wait and go white damage only (consume no more rage), and then taunt > shield slam to get back on top of threat after stun is the cb stun has worn off.

Basically, I only use it to save my DPSer’s butt midfight.