DK tanking skill...

[alextg94]

Ok, So, My application for a guild was just put on halt and I was put on the friends/family rank. This is because my GM said that I needed to "Work on my game, I have the gear and the personality, but the skill isin't up to par". I was wondering the opinion of other GMs and DK tanks on how I should go about doing this, please no trolling and please also be as specific as possible thx!

[Vodamn]

What do you think you could improve on?

Is he talking about general tanking skills, or DK-specific skills? Threat? Survivability?

[alextg94]

Tanking skills in General, DK tanking is easymode and i have 52k hp and 34k armor UB (34 dge and 29 parry) so surviv and threat really isint an issue i'd say

[Angryshammy]

you ask for specifics, but give us nothing to work with.

Most times when asked to sit, its one of 2 problems for tanks

1. Reaction times
2. Mana sponge

1 can only be worked on through practice.. which means you need to run 5 mans or pug old raids to get your reaction times and raid awareness up to par.

2 is usually a gear issue, but also you it can be explained by poor use of cooldowns.

You have lots of free time on your hands.. go find the worst players you can possibly find and raid with them, it'll help you more than you know.

[alextg94]

TBH, that realllly helped, I think it is the first one that I need to work on, especially on fights where we have to pick up adds like Hval dreamwalker and Hdeathwisper, Any suggestions as to how I can more efficiently aoe tank? rotation/priority list who I should focus on more, how I can best take care of casters ect...

[Xarai]

Its not like there is a fixed rotation on aoe... it mostly depends on how long do you need to hold aggro, for example the "worm packs" in the dreamwalker encounter (you know these annoying things that spawn when an abomination is killed) well they wont last long so 2-3 Bloodboils or a dnd is sufficient, other aoe packs last a little longer so you may need to spread diseases and tab.

who you should focus depends on your raid if you have a set priority list for adds great just follow the list and if someone dies because he nuked the wrong target its his own fault. if your raids just aoe´s the trash packs down focus the target that posses the greatest threat to your raid (one shoting healers or other caster). casters shouldn´t be a big problem just dg one, taunt+icy touch the second and if necessary silence the third...

another thing is you should do is take a look at the tidyplates and threatplates addons these two are awesome for aoe tanking as you will see how much threat you have on each target and can react if someone is about to pull aggro.

€dit: as with everything else tanking is just a matter of practice, the problem with tanking is most people expects you to already know everything there is to know... one thing you can do is run 5 man´s like Angryshammy said (especially if you know a healer you can trust) tank the instances and try to increase the speed until you reach the point of chainpulling, that way you learn to manage your runes while picking up new "spawned" adds

[Zao]

For AoE tanking I also suggest downloading the Tidy Plates: Threat plates addon.
It's a tremendous help on AE tanking, since it shows you really well which adds stick to you and which are running around oneshotting clothies.

Edit: Xarai beat me to it

[Dannyll]

In my experience, tanking is mostly about awareness and much of what I do is based on instinct. It is really difficult to pin point specifics in tanking skill because every situation is different and you may need to react in a wide variety of ways. Would actually help if the GM would say specifically what the problem is. If you are going AoE tanking with a DK, I really suggest a deep frost spec, with the glyph of howling blast. I joined my guild, originally as their need for an AoE tank and that is what I specced for.

In case of Valithria, it isn't all that complicated. I only worry about the archmages and abominations. Our hunters have a priority for the zombies and rest of the dps concentrates on the blazing skelies and suppressors. On 25-man, I stick to midway to both doors, so I can see both of them. I tend to pull aggro on my targets with IT or taunt, saving my DG for cases where I'm locked tanking targets. I also make a point of only doing enough threat to let the dps quickly kill the add, because you don't want to be caught without runes when more mobs flood the room.

Keep mind freeze always handy when tanking archmages and compensate between aoe tanking and single target when you start with on mob but end up with three. To make sure I can always interrupt the frost bolt, I keep the archmage as my target and just keep the rest on me with AoE. Archmages are a higher priority anyway, so I don't expect dps to go all out on the abos. When an abo dies, quickly drop a DnD on it, if there is an archmage around, DG it to you and hit HB and BB, plus FSs to help threat on the archmage.

As for other tips, A) make sure you move around, to avoid zones that are conjured on the floor and B) when DBM warns of Lay Waste, quickly pop your AMS. We usually only get one or none at all so the couple of seconds with your AMS negates the high damage and the healer has a slightly easier time.

Hope that made sense, was typing it on a hurry

[khalpone]

Unlike DPS FaceRolling your keyboard, Tanking is more about Awareness of the environment.

1) Do you know where / When adds will spawn? Are you in a position to pick them up physically and with Runes/Abilities ready?
2) Are you watching threat of DPS calling out when people need to Off attack / Get salved? (a ranged player needs 130% threat to pull off you, a melee needs 101%.)
3) Do you move the boss appropriately? Making sure there's not Fire / Posion / Chocking Gas clouds on the melee?
4) Even on trash pulls, are you able to get everything herded up for Aoe? Silence / Death gripping casters

I'll use the trash leading to Marrowgar as an example.

What mobs are casters? Which can you interupt and which require Deathgrip to move? Where do the trap NPCs spawn? Which packs do you actually have to kill, which can you skip? Where should you be warning people not to stand to avoid extra pulls?

If you can answer all of that, then you have good awareness. Just remember, you should be looking at the rest of your screen, not your button bars. Unlike dpsing, you aren't trying to maximize your button presses.

[xeroxide]

another thing is you should do is take a look at the tidyplates and threatplates addons these two are awesome for aoe tanking as you will see how much threat you have on each target and can react if someone is about to pull aggro.

^^ best tanking addon ever
i think the new tidyplates (at least the beta) includes threatplates and the latter is no longer being updated.

learning when and how to use deathgrip is another key aspect. in heroics, being overgeared and chainpulling does not teach much, sure you may gain the reflexes however you dull your sense of strategy. When to use LoS, how many casters in the pack. Any healers? Do they run at low hp?

in the end it's persistance, die enough and you will eventually do a flawless run.


also in raids, it's about how well you can work with your healers and other tanks. The other tanks in our guild are rl mates usually playing right next to each other so we have the tank swaps down to an art form. With raid tanking, you'll be expected to know all the phases of a boss fight, while a dps will only be expected to know what's important for them, so a little pre-run research and a few vids might help there. Know the bosses moves, when to move... when to hit your "oh crap" buttons and when to tankswap.

when the gm said you need to work on your game, i assume he went to a raid with you? or at least a few heroics?o