I've not tanked much. I have a warrior and a paladin in the level 30s and only really tried tanking a few times on the Paladin. I recounted those tales of woe previously, and they werent ones I wished to remember.
As I told you a couple of days ago I now have a DK named PeerPressure, and by the time I had cleared Hellfire I was still waiting to clear the Ramparts for the first time. I'd queued for randoms as DPS and was doing fine, but with 30 minute waits for randoms and 45-60 minute waits for specific instances I found myself with only a single quest left in Hellfire which would lead onto others. That was "Weaken the Ramparts" which is basically clear Ramps and move onto the Furnace.
Knowing full well I would get it done quicker if I went as Tank, I bit the bullet and queued. Accidently I queued for a random and ended up in the Underbog.
I checked I was in frost presence and headed off to the first set of trash. I lived and so did everyone else. I kept agro and no one complained. But the healer hadnt moved. After a couple of minutes we kicked them and Divinë joined us, a disc priest. I made the group aware I was new to tanking and we moved on
The rest of the run (which we successfully cleared) was interesting. There was a warrior, without a shield, who every third set of trash or so would run off and pull. In my lack of confidence, I offered to revert to DPS, but the warrior never said a word. The priest (and a random mage) both said they would prefer if I continued (which was nice I thought) but the warrior just trundled along, pulling occasionally. He'd pull after I pulled a set of trash, which obviously resulted in extra pressure on the disc priest
I'd like to make special mention of the priest at this point - Divinë (with a funny e). He's from Tichondrius, and because of timezone differences we dont get to see many of them in our randoms. I received a whisper from Divinë saying ignore the warrior and that I was going fine. From that point on I received friendly tips on occasion (such as to clear the patrolling giant before the penultimate boss, and bits and bobs about improving the pull, never having your back to a mob etc) but always in a positive way. It was obvious he was a competent healer (you can tell these things when you are a healer yourself) and it turned out this was his fourth heals. I also presumed he had extensive tanking experience, but he claimed otherwise.
Running into a player like that does reset the agro table that playing WoW sometimes causes. There are only so many idiots you can cope with, but occasionally you find someone who makes you realise that the game isnt just full of idiots and weirdos. I hope that I am sometimes that person, aware of those learning something new, harsh to the gogogo crowd when they are abusing the less confident.
Divinë and I ran a second instance, and wiped. I stupidly (and I still don't know how) left group rather than released. The wipe was no ones fault, it was just a wipe. There was no agro, no abuse. I just erroneously left group.I created a level one toon on Tichondrius to thank Divinë for his support and assistance. He suggested a slight respec and so I spent the thousand gold and grabbed dualspec. I had won a 2H mace in Underbog (beating the warrior *woot*) and after learning how to use it (why dont DKs already know this, they know everything else) I bashed pigs until I was skill 300.
This time I queued as tank for the Ramparts, and mace held high, ran forth into the first set of trash. 20 minutes later I went to bed, "Weaken the Ramparts" completed. It wasn't a perfect run, I miss having a real taunt as I have on the warrior, or Righteous Defence as I have on the Paladin.
My real worry about tanking isnt dying. It's losing agro and having other people think I am crap. If I see a DPS or heals being beaten up then I am meant to grab the attention of that mob, and the DK does seem limited, so far, in that capacity. Deathgrip seems the most obvious. But I am sure I'll discover I am doing something wrong, but for now I'll just try and make sure I don't lose the mob in the first place. Seems simple. I'll see how it goes.
3 comments:
For DK tanking read pwnwear.com, especially his DK Tank Specs page, which not only includes specs, but some knowledge behind them.
As a levelling tank (now working on my bear), I have one problem - the gogogo DPS (These bother me more than 1c undercutting AH campers). I am sweet and mild in a raid (I have been accused of only having a purr and not a growl), but I am a grumpy tank in a levelling random 5 man.
I have developed a few strategies:
* Keep an eye on the healers mana, let people know they may need to call /oom, and pull as fast as I can.
* Once things go haywire (and they often do), tell DPS not to pull. This includes pets. If they want to tank, queue as tank. This has been phrased as anything from a request to the DPS, and a request to the heals not to heal the DPS.
* Subsequent issues, and I vote to kick/teleport out of dungeon/leave party (or any combination of these).
Even with the above, I finish 85% of dungeons I run, with most of them being enjoyable.
Crap I had this mini wall of text typed out but lost it because I was logged in with my work's google profile and tried to change :x
so the tldr version :P
the bashing pigs comment had me in stitches
you 've got a taunt called dark command in the blood tree but death grip also has a taunt effect and icy touch has an insanely aggro moddifier. glyphed and talented death and decay really helps a lot on initial aggro and rune tap gives you an instant rune for whatever you need instantly (duh) =)
You actually have two taunts at your disposal as a DK tank: Dark Command and Death Grip. Death Grip has a long cooldown and I try to save it for pulling mobs off other players, but Dark Command has the standard 8 second cooldown that other taunts have. Sacristar is correct about Icy Touch, its aggro is off the chart, but I wouldn't bother with glyphing or talenting Death and Decay. The Rune cost on it is so high that it is really only viable as an opener for initial aggro. After that you should Icy Touch and Plague Strike on your primary target, then Pestilence to spread the diseases to the other mobs.
You can also use Glyph of Pestilence to to refresh your diseases for you, making your job a whole lot easier. It allows you to simply use Blood Boil and Pestilence for AoE aggro, assuming you are a Blood tank.
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