Tanking Tricks, Techniques, & Style [Archive]

View Full Version : Tanking Tricks, Techniques, & Style

Rahatmattata

12-31-2009, 06:46 AM

I've been wondering what kind of tricks/techniques tanks have developed over time. A little customizing your settings can help a lot.A few things I have done are bind emergancy abilities to my keyboard. For example I have tower of stone on hotbar control + 9. I play mostly with my keyboard and use the mouse for targetting and clicking non-combat stuff for the most part (potions, gear swaps, chat macros, etc). The middle of my hotbars is the hardest areas to click. Holding control while pushing 7,8,9 is awkward for me. So I bind useful things to my letter keys. Contrl + 9 is tower of stone bound to my F key. I normally rest my left hand near wasd so it's really easy to pop ToS.One of my threat snaps is bound to C (crouch is remapped to shift C). I have another snap bound to Z.Ranged attack I have bound to V... works for me...Targetting features I have found helped my tanking a lot was binding the assist function to Q. Assist is not bound to a key by default, but it's very useful. The way it works is it targets whatever you target is targetting. This might not sound very useful at first, but I have found it to be quite useful. For example, instead of targetting through a tank, I'll simply target the tank and push assist and I have his target directly. Now I don't have to be bothered as he tabs around. Or I can target a mob he pulls, hit assist and it will target him directly without me having to push F2 or whatever, or click his name in the raid window. I use it for other things to. /assist Name is a useful macro to create (and bind to your keyboard or side mouse button for easy access). This is different than the /assist function found under options in that it straight up targets whatever the person's name has targeted. This is pretty essential to have if you are a main assist.Probably the best targetting feature I have found is the select previous target. I have this bound to X and it absolutely owns for picking up an add and immediatly snap back to your main target without fumbling around clicking on the warden's tree or someone's pet.As for quick targeting, I have found most of the time it is best to click a mob's foot. Sometimes trying to click its head or even its body is sketchy and you target something else (usually a group member). Sometimes the mob's foot is covered by something else, especially in raids but it's usually a good place to look first if you plan to switch targets.Sometimes when I have a group of adds inc. and nothing good up to scoop them up, I'll drop sentry watch (guardian group save vs death) to buy time while I fumble around trying to get a target or wait for an encounter taunt or something else.This is common knowledge, but immobilize is good to keep a group of mobs pinned by you and off casters even if you don't have aggro.Collect gear for dps and gear for durability and macro that sht on a hotbar. Common knowledge, but it's much easier than digging through your bags and drag & dropping.When a templar or shaman pet pulls a far mob, usually their pet misses or does such little damage that you can get aggro on inc just by dropping intercede on the templar/shaman. It's good practice IMO to intercede any time someone besides you is pulling a hard hitting mob anyway.And finally for the brand new tanks out there... even if you have aggro on a mob, if you are not standing within melee range of the mob for whatever reason, it will swat whomever is standing near it with the most hate in the face.tl;dr - bind hotbar slots to your keyboard/mouse buttons; select previous target is your friend.That's all I can think of for now.

Aull

12-31-2009, 08:40 PM

Great infoz thanks. I need to upgrade my mouse so that I have more buttons so I can use the select previous target technique on it rather than the keyboard. Right now I use the target closest target and it is nice to have when a mobs runs to the aggro I positions myself as close to the mobs center as I can and pop it for immediate target aquisition. Now I can select previous target and continue my cycle.Thanks for the heads up! Merry New Year to ya.

Vlahkmaak

01-01-2010, 07:51 AM

I don't care how easy the mob is ALWAYS turn them. Sloppy habits breed sloppy tanking later. I hate tanks that do not turn mobs when I am on my ranger, it is not the DPS job to flank the mob - it is your job to place the mobs back to your grp. Turning the mob allows scouts to max dps and mage pets (esp scout pets) too.When your not on your tank (ie your on a dps toon) NEVER pull mobs just becuase you can. It frustrates the hell out of tanks - especially if their snap abilities are down. Tanks take your death personally even if you do something stupid. Let new tanks learn the grp mechanics if its a pug and you can always ask politely to pull faster if the grp seems capable of taking a little damage.Re-inforcement plus blue aoe is a new guardians best friend.

Aull

01-01-2010, 03:58 PM

<cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't care how easy the mob is ALWAYS turn them. Sloppy habits breed sloppy tanking later. I hate tanks that do not turn mobs when I am on my ranger, it is not the DPS job to flank the mob - it is your job to place the mobs back to your grp. Turning the mob allows scouts to max dps and mage pets (esp scout pets) too.When your not on your tank (ie your on a dps toon) NEVER pull mobs just becuase you can. It frustrates the hell out of tanks - especially if their snap abilities are down. Tanks take your death personally even if you do something stupid. Let new tanks learn the grp mechanics if its a pug and you can always ask politely to pull faster if the grp seems capable of taking a little damage.Re-inforcement plus blue aoe is a new guardians best friend.</blockquote>I agree but that just doens't apply to a tanking position either. If the healer sucks on cures many times tanks are rooted and cannot adjust/position mob(s) properly. When that happens scouts themselves need to make temporary adjustments. That is why most scouts have in-combat run speed. Rangers would have the harder time doing this since many are at range and running up takes more time than say an assassin or the rouges to get the back stab positioning.Aggro is everyone responsibility. High damage sorecerers, preds, rogues, ect can rip aggro from any tank very very quickly. Guards, zerkers, bruisers, and monks have more aggro issues than the crusaders. Hopefully next expac taunts will be stronger allowing a better chance at holding aggro giving them better success. Basic taunts do not offer enough threat currently for any tank to have a hope of holding or regaining aggro without the assistance of positionals. Even positionals such as rescue cannot offer more than a few seconds of aggro before aggro is lost again.The tank and everone else included need to expect the unexpected and make those adjustments if the situations calls for it.I do agree that what a player does in everyday norrath will migrate over to end game play.

BChizzle

01-01-2010, 10:48 PM

<cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't care how easy the mob is ALWAYS turn them. Sloppy habits breed sloppy tanking later. I hate tanks that do not turn mobs when I am on my ranger, it is not the DPS job to flank the mob - it is your job to place the mobs back to your grp. Turning the mob allows scouts to max dps and mage pets (esp scout pets) too.</blockquote>Lol, I disagree, if its a group and you have them stacked nice and good turning them will just screw over dps. Fact is a scout can go behind a mob just as fast as it takes you to turn them yourself but losing a nicely stacked group or groups due to moving around too much is dumb. As far as scout pets go who would ever use a scout pet?

Landiin

01-01-2010, 11:55 PM

<cite>BChizzle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't care how easy the mob is ALWAYS turn them. Sloppy habits breed sloppy tanking later. I hate tanks that do not turn mobs when I am on my ranger, it is not the DPS job to flank the mob - it is your job to place the mobs back to your grp. Turning the mob allows scouts to max dps and mage pets (esp scout pets) too.</blockquote>Lol, I disagree, if its a group and you have them stacked nice and good turning them will just screw over dps. Fact is a scout can go behind a mob just as fast as it takes you to turn them yourself but losing a nicely stacked group or groups due to moving around too much is dumb. As far as scout pets go who would ever use a scout pet?</blockquote>Figures..

Rahatmattata

01-02-2010, 04:05 AM

I always turn mobs. There's no reason not to, all you have to do is pull and take 1 step forward. There's nothing lamer than a tank that pulls and stands there with mobs facing the group. It annoys the hell out of me when I play my ranger. Also, if you pull several mobs, don't just stand in the middle of a circle of mobs with them all spread out around you. For one, you can't block mobs behind you with a shield so you take more damage, for another It's annoying as a dps, especially an assassin, to run around the outside perimiter of a circle of mobs. When tanks do this I just pick whatever mob is closest to me and target it myself, which usually leads to yanking hate which means I can't stealth/backstab, which means I'm parsing like crap and not having fun.If you do have mobs spread out around you in an arc, do your assassin/brig a favor and target the mobs in order clockwise or counter clockwise. Don't just randomly tab to the mob behind you, then the one in front of you, then the one to your 8 o'clock, etc. Personally, any time I switch targets I just take a step in the appropriate direction so the mob's pooper is repositioned right in the scout's face. Tanks like bcheezy that either run around wiffing my concealment chain or just stand there like a sponge with the mobs "wherever" are why I quit playing my assassin. And why I quit assissting tanks 90% of the time.Aquire a new target when remaining dots and aoe autoattack will finish off your current target. And for fx sake don't stand there waiting for a mob to swing at you to aquire a target. Go the extra mile and take a silly step through the mob to flip it so your dps doesn't have to waste one - three precious seconds losing damage to make up for your fail. That's how I role anyway. I realize some most tanks don't care.

BChizzle

01-03-2010, 03:54 PM

<cite>Rahatmattata wrote:</cite><blockquote>I always turn mobs. There's no reason not to, all you have to do is pull and take 1 step forward.</blockquote>Wrong again, especially if you have a good stack going for people with ae frontals, having a good stack > then running around things. Potential DPS lost is going to be huge vs having a good stack. I see it all the time with nub tanks running around instead of just getting a group stacked nice. Scouts can move plain and simple, the best example of this type of tanking is books in WOE it is a complete waste to try and get all the books backs rather just stack them good and let them get nuked out. End of the day whats gunna kill the mobs faster you running around moving stuff in and out of range or just stacking them nice and done?

Aull

01-03-2010, 06:43 PM

When I am not tanking and on my swash I make the adjustments myself as needed. I observe what the tank is doing and make adjustments from there. If the tank does not spin the mob for me then no big deal I will move myself without complaining. In combat run speed helps. If anyone else wants to continue to stand in front of the mob that is their choice.Positioning the mob the a good thing but many players are to lazy to make adjustments (tanks included). I play each group like noone knows what they are doing anyway. If I haven't grouped with them before.

Rahatmattata

01-04-2010, 03:49 AM

<cite>BChizzle wrote:</cite><blockquote>I see it all the time with nub tanks running around instead of just getting a group stacked nice. Scouts can move plain and simple, the best example of this type of tanking is books in WOE it is a complete waste to try and get all the books backs rather just stack them good and let them get nuked out. End of the day whats gunna kill the mobs faster you running around moving stuff in and out of range or just stacking them nice and done?</blockquote>It takes a split second to flip a mob, so not sure [Removed for Content] you are talking about newb tanks running around. When you pull the books in WoE, if you are standing in the corner like a nontard tank the mobs' backs will be exposed to the room anyway... except for memwiping books obviously.Not sure how you pull, but generally I'll either rush an encounter (with my group coming in behind me) and take a step through it so the mobs flip, or I'll ranged/proxy pull and encounter back to the group, and flip them when the mobs get to wherever I want to pull them. Takes like however long my character needs to take 1 step, and most of the time the mobs end up with their butt in dps face. But do what you do, I really don't much care how you tank.

BChizzle

01-04-2010, 06:35 AM

<cite>Aull wrote:</cite><blockquote>When I am not tanking and on my swash I make the adjustments myself as needed. I observe what the tank is doing and make adjustments from there. If the tank does not spin the mob for me then no big deal I will move myself without complaining. In combat run speed helps. If anyone else wants to continue to stand in front of the mob that is their choice.Positioning the mob the a good thing but many players are to lazy to make adjustments (tanks included). I play each group like noone knows what they are doing anyway. If I haven't grouped with them before.</blockquote>Exactly, too many times when I am not tanking I see a tank ruin a perfectly good stack, the best is when I am on my coercer and I pop my ae and they are stunned all apart so everyones frontals get screwed over. From a high level tanking perspective getting a good stack > turning every mob.

Terron

01-04-2010, 12:48 PM

I try to turn most of the time. Not only does it expose the backs of the mobs to the party and stop frontal aes from mhitting them, it also means I am the one furthest in, and so will automatically get aggro with any mob that wanders upThe main exception is mobs that can knock you back into other mobs, and even those I will usually try to turn side on.

Rahatmattata

01-04-2010, 01:44 PM

<cite>BChizzle wrote:</cite><blockquote>the best is when I am on my coercer and I pop my ae and they are stunned all apart so everyones frontals get screwed over. From a high level tanking perspective getting a good stack > turning every mob.</blockquote>I didn't know plowing heroic trash is what you consider high level tanking. You must be pretty bad at positioning if yanking mobs and standing wherever they spread is quicker and more efficient for your group than spinning them and getting them in a nice little pile. It's much quicker to flip an encounter than to make your dps run passed you and reposition on each mob, or just settle for whatever frontal dps they can do.BTW enchanters that stun/root/mez mobs on inc are noobs.

RafaelSmith

01-04-2010, 02:32 PM

I benched my Guard a few months back and started focusing on Assassin.One thing I have learned since then is that when I was playing Guard I was not doing a very good job of properly positioning/clumping mobs. I now have much appreciate for tanks that do that well. That said........i would take mobs clumped up nicely anyday over having them all turned the same way.

Landiin

01-04-2010, 03:44 PM

If you can't pull at pile in and flip the group the back while keeping them piled in a sec then u suck. Maybe once in awhile a mob will split from the stack when I jump back the other way but 99% then stay stacked and in a good pos for my group. There are the times when a noob pops a stun/mez on inc and screws the entire group. But really, its funner to move the mobs around just when the scout stats their chain.. Cracks me up..

BChizzle

01-04-2010, 04:16 PM

<cite>Gaylon@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>I benched my Guard a few months back and started focusing on Assassin.One thing I have learned since then is that when I was playing Guard I was not doing a very good job of properly positioning/clumping mobs. I now have much appreciate for tanks that do that well. That said........i would take mobs clumped up nicely anyday over having them all turned the same way. </blockquote>Ya man, funny thing is I can point it out but these guys just won't get it.

Rahatmattata

01-04-2010, 05:21 PM

<cite>Toran@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>But really, its funner to move the mobs around just when the scout stats their chain.. Cracks me up..</blockquote>When I was leveling my assassin I used to static with a fury and bruiser. Sometimes he'd spin in circles and run around to fk with me. Was quite annoying, but kinda funny too.

schizolic

01-06-2010, 09:00 PM

crouch and walk macro'd to the same thumb button on my mouse so if a fear goes off i quickly do both at the same time and dont go anywhere.keep tab open to any target, but when in situations like multi mob pulls keep your camera aimed straight down and zoomed out (can adjust zoom distance in options menu) so that when you tab you dont get mobs but the ones you are wanting and not something across the zone.When body pulling, once the mob is outside of social aggro distance pop it with an arrow then your single/group taunt before it gets into melee range (takes some practice to learn the right distance to avoid the social aggro range)

Avianna

01-06-2010, 09:59 PM

<cite>schizolic wrote:</cite><blockquote>crouch and walk macro'd to the same thumb button on my mouse so if a fear goes off i quickly do both at the same time and dont go anywhere.keep tab open to any target, but when in situations like multi mob pulls keep your camera aimed straight down and zoomed out (can adjust zoom distance in options menu) so that when you tab you dont get mobs but the ones you are wanting and not something across the zone.When body pulling, once the mob is outside of social aggro distance pop it with an arrow then your single/group taunt before it gets into melee range (takes some practice to learn the right distance to avoid the social aggro range)</blockquote>best post on this page so far really like the walk crouch macro idea that is great one one question on that though how do I set it to a mouse button?ok now for my thoughts advice and 2c worth1.) Aggro: This is a group project to manage agg. #1 pet peeve--->The group needs to give the tank time to aquire agg. Nothing annoys me more as a guardian (that has agg problems to begin with but that is a different thread) that I announce INC <MOB> and next thing I know I got an ice comet flying over my shoulder and the mob pats me on the back on their way to the wizzy!a.) Easiest way I have found to do this is creating a macro that tells the group "bombs away" and attaching that to my third spell I cast. This does two things 1.) It gives my group an easy go ahead que letting them know I have agg 2.) I don't have to worry about weather or not I gotta run to the back of the group and pull agg off my wizzy.b.) Have the group members attach a macro to their "Big Bombs" to let me know I need to pop a taunt to hold agg, for example, one wizzy I group with often has a macro on his Ice Comet that says "This is prolly gonna get me killed" as he fires it off but I see that and can easily pop a taunt or rescue and I don't loose agg.c.) All group members need to keep an eye on their threat meters, That is what they are there for! If you are not the tank and you agg meter gets up to 90% or so it's prolly not a good time for Ice comet unless your trying to wipe the group. So watch your agg and back off if it gets up there.2.) Turning: Turning is benifical in so many ways to the entire group and the second it takes to do so is so worth it. Some of these benifits are: decreased hate gain if flanking or behind, better positioning for rangers, assassins, etc., decreased AoE damage to the group, adds hit the tank first cause he is ahead of the group, and more.3.) Know Your Toon: I prefere to group with people that have taken their time getting to 80 and really know their toon and spells and what each one does in relation to the rest of the group. An organized hotbar is your friend <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. If your in a hurry your gonna get sloppy and wipe the group. Relax and enjoy the game and the time with your group mates and the experience will be benifical to all who are involved <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> except for maybe the mobs <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks for reading and happy hunting!Toodles-Avi

Rahatmattata

01-06-2010, 11:32 PM

<cite>Avianna@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote> I don't have to worry about weather or not I gotta run to the back of the group and pull agg off my wizzy.</blockquote><blockquote>If I'm tanking more than a couple of mobs and one gets loose and runs off to punch on a dps, I prefer to let the dps bring the mob back to me rather than drag a huge pile of mobs through the group to go pick up one that got loose. Whoever ripped is either going to die and the mob will come back to me, or they can bring the mob over within range of my abilities and I'll yank it off them. I long ago quit chasing rangers.</blockquote>

Rahatmattata

01-06-2010, 11:39 PM

<cite>schizolic wrote:</cite><blockquote>When body pulling, once the mob is outside of social aggro distance pop it with an arrow then your single/group taunt before it gets into melee range (takes some practice to learn the right distance to avoid the social aggro range)</blockquote>Another thing about that is if you are pulling a multi-mob encounter and there is social stuff all around, you can engage any single target attacks once your target clears social radius even if the the other mobs in the encounter are in social range of other mobs in different encounters.When I proxy pull an encounter out of a heavily social area, I'll start building aggro on the mob I'm pulling as soon as it's out of range of adds... and then when the rest of the encounter clears the social area I drop encounter taunt, position, and start tanking. The only sketchy thing is sometimes your dps players will see you engage, and they will start popping encounter spells before the encounter has cleared social radius.Sorry if that is confusing to read.

schizolic

01-08-2010, 10:12 PM

the crouch and walk macro is under the controls/movement keys in your options menu, just clear the alt button box and hit the button you want it to be, you might get a message saying that keys being used already, but you can ignore it.

Avianna

01-08-2010, 10:16 PM

Thanks! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Aule

01-11-2010, 05:01 PM

For positioning a clump of mobs in a tight stack, they move in a semi-predictive pattern, it's not a straight chase the back of you routine. They chase, but they move If they're very close to you, and your movement leaves you very close to them still, they'll normally just rotate. This is best accomplished by moving through them rather than circling around them. Strafing sideways or with just a slight forward trajectory, and then taking 1 or 2 steps back when you reach your target position, will generally cause the mob's to predictively run to right in front of you and stop. If it's a smaller stack of mobs, moving through the . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . a . b . c . .. . . . x . . . . .(Where a/b/c are mobs and x is you). . . . . . . . . .. x . . . . . . . .. .bac. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .(Move through a and flip him, b and c are now too far away and begin to move. Once they start moving, take a single step further away from a and they will normally end up something like the second picture. When there's a large cloud of mobs, they'll try to circle you, if you didn't get this group stacked up nice on pull it's going to be hard to get them into that position after the fact. The best you can do is try to move so that part of your stack doesn't move and the rest of the stack predictively tries to run onto your stack. This often results in your stacked portion circling you while the old part that was circling you stacks up.

Rahatmattata

01-12-2010, 07:19 AM

When there's a large group of mobs I prefer to wedge into a corner if practical. 90% of the time the mobs can't get behind you, and they all pile up in front of you which is good for aoes, and you can't block behind you with your shield anyway so you take more damage if they are behind you. Of course you will sometimes get a mob that will stand on top of you in some weird orientation, or behind you slightly in the wall, but I don't worry about it usually.

SK_Lafree

01-12-2010, 11:30 AM

Excellent thread. Thanks for the tips and tricks everyone.

Costa

01-12-2010, 02:53 PM

Bunching and turning mobs is not just to the benefit of the group. If you play a mythed zerk or trample speced crusader or even agi speced guard (not sure if brawlers get an aa to do it?) it allows that auto attack to hit everything in front of you = more agro/dps.Where i can i generally try to turn the mobs and bunch them up although sometime they just seem a pain to get where you want them so then i just leave it to the scouts to do their thing whilst working around the arc. Do try to not have them pounding on your back as previously stated. Your avoidance check is pretty much useless there so hard hitting mobs will hit you harder if you have your back to them.My biggest gripe and i'm for ever shouting at them for it is enchanters stunning, mezzing or dazing an encounter right after the pull. How the heck do they expect you to position something when it can't move??? That and encounter roots so the mob targets the closest thing to them rather than the person with the most hate. I'm sure my guildies do it now just to wind me up but still annoying....And finally if your group can take it and you have the agro abilities pull multiple encounters. When i group on my bard or healer and the tank just pulls 1 group or 1 mob at a time not only does it get boring but the zones take forever. Even on raids i try and get the MT guard to pull multiple trash mobs where possible to get through the zones faster.Sorry not any real new tips or tricks but just some agreements with others in what i generally do <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Aull

01-12-2010, 04:22 PM

Yeah this is a great thread. I still believe that zerker assult/onslaught or whatever it is called should not be limited to a frontal arc but should be a true 360 degree ability for the zerks. On trivial mobs zerkers should be just as capable as crusaders in true 360 degree damage.

The_Cheeseman

01-19-2010, 12:27 PM

<cite>Bazill@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>Bunching and turning mobs is not just to the benefit of the group. If you play a mythed zerk or trample speced crusader or even agi speced guard (not sure if brawlers get an aa to do it?) it allows that auto attack to hit everything in front of you = more agro/dps.Where i can i generally try to turn the mobs and bunch them up although sometime they just seem a pain to get where you want them so then i just leave it to the scouts to do their thing whilst working around the arc. Do try to not have them pounding on your back as previously stated. Your avoidance check is pretty much useless there so hard hitting mobs will hit you harder if you have your back to them.</blockquote>Brawlers do not, in fact, get any form of Melee AoE, merely a 16% chance to proc a point-blank AoE melee attack--Crane Twirl--which hasn't seen a damage upgrade since Kingdom of Sky (it literally only hits for around 300-500 damage). What is especially ironic is that the brawler's main form of aggro generation is from Dragon Rage, a threat proc on melee attacks which does not proc from Crane Twirl. As if that wasn't enough, Brawlers are the only fighters that maintain their full avoidance from any angle, yet they are also the least capable of maintaining hate against MOBs who are not directly in front of them.I swear somebody at SOE is laughing their heads off about brawlers.

LivelyHound

01-19-2010, 01:18 PM

One thing on enchanters stunning on the pull that people have mentioned. The enchanter t1, t2, and t3 set gear has a stun proc on hostile spell, that triggers a lot. The t3 is 7 secs proc 3 times a min if i recall. So in other words your chanter can wait until every mob in the pack has reached its position and then start to dps or they can start to dps and every so often the pull goes wonky due to the stun proc. If it goes awry your chanter should happily be able to deal with the adds. Another thing to bear in mind is some chanters run a lot of stun proc gear above and beyond the set pieces and you can stack different ones, thus gaining a lot of stuns. Chances are it is those procs you are seeing not an actual stun cast. On my chanter when I'm in solo gear I can keep most mobs that are stunnable permastunned and never actually cast a stun. Bazill... quick question, I can understand the mez/stun/root irritation but why daze? All that does is stop the mob hitting you with any ca's. Back to the tanking... for pallies, macro intercept with stonewall... its the best use stonewall has and as for multimobs, swap targets before the first one dies, dots and aoes will kill the initial target eventually. With practise you can get all the mobs to die at the same time thus speeding up the trash killing by maximising aoe dmg. Also if you get bad tab-targets a lot, the camera at the floor trick mentioned earlier works wonders but then so does F8 for me. F8 = select nearest npc.

Aull

01-19-2010, 10:25 PM

<cite>Bazill@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote>Bunching and turning mobs is not just to the benefit of the group. If you play a mythed zerk or trample speced crusader or even agi speced guard (not sure if brawlers get an aa to do it?) it allows that auto attack to hit everything in front of you = more agro/dps.Where i can i generally try to turn the mobs and bunch them up although sometime they just seem a pain to get where you want them so then i just leave it to the scouts to do their thing whilst working around the arc. Do try to not have them pounding on your back as previously stated. Your avoidance check is pretty much useless there so hard hitting mobs will hit you harder if you have your back to them.</blockquote>I do support trying to get all the mobs in front of tank so none are pounding at the back side. It is totally reasonable to do this. This really applies for the zerkers since most of their abilities only hit in a frontal arc only and they absolutely are forced to position mobs every time if the zerker wishes to make the most of their abilities. Again I am a believer in doing the best the postion the mobs in front.Crusaders can be careless on trival content since every aoe ability they have hits a true 360 degrees surrounding the crusader. Not saying that zerkers can't be careless but again for zerkers they must place every trivial or not mob in front if they hope to make the most of their so called aoes.

Ferunnia

01-20-2010, 04:13 AM

1. I always stare at the ground on multiple encounters...2. I love tanking CoA...love parsing 8-10k on those big pulls with agi spec/mutagenic gear3. I turn every mob.4. When I pull them in I put them on each other, pick the biggest group and put it between me and the scout dps for aoe frontals. If it's heroic and isn't in Guk:OS or PoF why do you care if it's behind you? This maneuvering takes less than a second on incoming...If positioning and clustering combined takes longer than that you suck. Also, remember that in the case of Guardians/Assassins, not sure about the rest of the melee classes, aoe frontals have a max cap of four targets. Don't waste time trying to position more than four at a time5. Macros, macros, macros.6. Don't be complacent. Treat every fight like it could go to hell in a moment's notice. Tanking ain't meant to be easy...7. Know your abilities, and for godsakes upgrade your CAs.8. Don't worry, those emergencies/temp buffs/snaps will come back up...Don't be sparing.9. Last but not least...Don't be afraid to try new zones, but also don't be afraid to admit when you're in over your head on new content. If you are failboating your group, tell em yer sorry you suck/are undergeared/need more practice, then leave. No one wants to sit there for an extra hour with a crappy tank who won't just go.Edit: Typos