Skittish Tanking Tips

[jimboa24]

So I just tanked a +7 Nelth's lair. My tanking toon is a blood DK, and holy shit, I felt like a failure. The DPS kept pulling aggro and dying. My solution was to pull one group at a time instead of racing through the instance as fast as possible (as per all keystone dungeons). We made it through with 2 chests, but the DPS still died more than a few times despite my best efforts to hold aggro.

Any tips on tanking skittish dungeons? How do I deal with the fact that I am simply not going to be able to hold aggro?

[Keashaa]

Don't just do AE threat. If you've got three mobs, do it that way:

- single target skill on mob A
- AE threat skill
- single target skill on mob B
- AE threat skill
- single target skill on mob C
- AE threat skill
- single target skill on mob A

Something like that.

[Tojara]

Pull as much as you can and pop DRW. You won't lose aggro with DRW.

Um generally there isn't much you can do if your DPS is good. Essentially if they do 2x the damage that the tank does, they will pull aggro eventually. It's easier with range if they actually stay at range, because they have a 30% aggro threshold, where melee only have a 10% threshold. If you're running with range that are sitting on top of you, tell them to stay back as they are essentially eliminating a huge advantage they have over melee during skittish week.

It's an affix that will make you feel bad as a tank, no matter how good you are, unless your DPS are less than stellar.

How do I approach it? Pretend it doesn't exist and proceed as normal usually works, just expect the odd death. Mostly I just tell my DPS to be mindful when I'm actually pulling, but I don't tell them to delay damage beyond that. It's just annoying when people throw filler GCDs while we are moving and gathering packs, as it wastes taunts that are probably going to be needed several seconds later. Usually telling them to use stuns only when they are about to pull or do pull aggro is good as well.

The only other way you can approach it is to simply pull and tell them to not do anything for 'x' amount of time. In most cases it's probably better to ping pong mobs and have them lay into shit shortly after you pull.

Personally I think skittish is a bullshit affix, and I just do less M+ than I usually do during those weeks.

[Tanthalas]

It's generally good to just avoid skittish week without a rogue/hunter in a group. Having two of misdirect classes makes the affix non-existant.

Also, I wouldn't follow the advice from Keashaa – that's the best way to lose aggro on all ABC mobs. Instead, focus your single target abilities on mobs A and B, and then just taunt mob C when you lose aggro.

Ask your party to give you couple of gcds before they start dpsing – it's okay for them to wait for necrotic stacks to drop on a necrotic week, so how about they wait about the same amount of time in this case too?

[Leih]

The difficulty with Skittish can be dependent on your DPS as much as your tank, it's hard to say where the fault lies without watching you guys play.

If all the DPS are opening full burst maximum DPS on every pack as soon as it's pulled, all DPSing different targets, you won't hold threat no matter what you do. You will need your DPS to help you out a bit - either by making use of things like proper stuns/roots to make pulling aggro irrelevant, or by controlling their threat a little by focus firing on the same target (so you can use taunt to keep it) or making use of misdirects.

If you're really having trouble, they can also just give you ~5s per pack to build a little lead before opening up. You'll lose some time of course but less than if the group is pulling aggro and dying every time!

[Deleted]

Don't just do AE threat. If you've got three mobs, do it that way:

- single target skill on mob A
- AE threat skill
- single target skill on mob B
- AE threat skill
- single target skill on mob C
- AE threat skill
- single target skill on mob A

Something like that.

Terrible advice.

Honestly Skittish is all about your DDs. They need to understand to give you 3-4 seconds to gather mobs and get your AOE rotation going instead of nuking immediately and forcing you to fight on aggro for single mobs.

The DDs should allow you to place Death and Decay, Blood Boil and 2 Heart Strikes. You shouldn't lose aggro even if the DDs outgear you by some amount.

[melodramocracy]

Ask your dps to set for your focus target, while still doing their normal AOE thing. (something many players probably have no idea on). It won't solve all problems, but it will help.

[OrcsRLame]

You can't hold aggro off a geared dps unless they let you. I'm an ilvl 898 prot paladin, and even doing 2 million dps on 6 mobs, I would lose aggro to our DH. That's Seraphim+wings with legendary belt, ilvl 900 cleave trinket from Skorpyron and 890 Ravaged Seed Pod.

You cannot brute force this affix.

[Leih]

I also agree with focusing your dps on one mob and using taunt on the one you're not focusing to keep him sticking to you.

Not usually recommended on Bolstering/Skittish but on the Teeming/Skittish week I often do the opposite of this. I'll mark a target and tell all the DPS to focus this one down (usually a caster or another priority target if there is one). I'll taunt on cooldown on that mob while they burst him down with primarily single target damage and while they're doing that it gives me 10 seconds or so to build AOE threat on everything else. By the time they start the AOE fest my threat is usually solid enough they can go as wild as they want on the rest of the pack.

[Deleted]

If DD get the first hit on mobs it completely screws you over, since you now need to generate 110% more threat then they generate to pull aggro back.

Try and maintain BS stacks in between trash packs so you can start the next pull by Heart Striking instead of building up stacks with Marrowrend. For big pulls such as the one at the start of Maw build up some RP on the first two mobs before you pull the rest. D&D + Mass Grip + DRW + Bonestorm should be enough to keep aggro on the big pack for long enough.

Also remember as a DK you can use Death Grip as a pseudo taunt.

[Rusque]

Your dps need to play better. CC, defensives, kiting around you, redirecting if they have it.

I'm not familiar with blood DK's these days, but if you have any slows or can talent into some, you should.