Scared of Tanking in LFR due to potential abuse

[Deleted]

Hello all,

Am looking at Tanking in LFR Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar but am a bit dubious of it as I have seen the potential abuse that Tanks get and/or the just plain lack of Knowledge of fights and mechanics.

I have been doing runs in LFR (as DPS) while specced for Prot loot, also been doing runs with my guild in normal MSV (just to get my confidence up)

Would anyone have any suggestions and or what addons I would need to do the following

1. Be able to tank effectively
2. Help the other members of the raid
3. Not screw up fights

Unfortunately I am unable to post a link to my character - Hughja on Chamber of Secrets as I have not posted enough yet

[Dakara]

Firstly, if you're new to tanking, then start at the beginning, i.e. MSV or even 5 man heroics. Nothing like overgearing encounters to make up for a lack of experience!

As for addons, you want the usual Boss Mod (DBM for example), and I like tidy plates, threat plates which color the targets nameplates based on if I have aggro or not. Other than that, you really need to learn each fight from the Tanks PoV, as doing it as DPS wont teach you how to tank. So youtube and read some guides. It's a pain in the ass, but if the tank doesn't know the encounter then it most likely wont end well.

[Chat]

Go ahead and tank it.. Honestly when I first started tanking and people would rage at me i'd ignore em and if they kicked me I could careless. Instant-queues for the win. Honestly it's better to not talk at all cause they will use anything against you to get you kicked..

[Itakas]

Learn the fight tactics for a tank and queue up as tank, not much more needed rly and you can work on your tanking skills as you tank lfr . If someone is bitching just ignore them, since no matter if you tank with perfection or show in no ench/gem TI gear, you will eventually get someone talk shit about how you tank.

[Raelys]

You seem to have already taken more steps to achieve than a lot of LFR tanks/players. Just do yourself credit and you'll do fine.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Get DBM and read the dungeon journal. Once you start learning how to recognize mechanics you can get a working understanding of most of the fights from just the dungeon journal.

[Normie]

You are certain to receive negative feedback (both accurate and wildly inaccurate) but unlikely to receive a lot of positive "It was great not dying with you" feedback.

If it bothers you when people insult you, you should stay the hell away from tanking LFR. People will insult you, and they will never compliment you. (Because good tanking is boring for everyone except the tank.)

But if you can ignore what people say, go for it. LFR needs more tanks!

[Totaltotemic]

Hold Shift, press J, and dive into the magical world of the Dungeon Journal. If you know how every fight works, no one has a reason to yell at you for anything. If you queue into LFR and don't have a clue what the bosses do... well... you kind of get what you get.

[Mammoth]

Some thoughts off the top of my head.

When you're in the raid as a DPS watch what the tank is doing, learn from the good ones, learn what not to do from the bad ones. (Thok is the one that really annoys me. Don't face it into the raid, don't kite it, don't taunt it until you're in position.)


Videos are useful, but a lot of things are missing / ignored / done badly in LFR. I can't really be bothered with them. I don't think most of the people who insist they're mandatory watch them either for LFR. But if you're unsure what the tank was doing when you were watching him, then these will tell you what you should be looking out for.


Talk to the other tank. Whisper him, ask how many stacks he wants / how he wants it tanked.


If you don't know how many stacks to do on a boss simply taunt when your debuff falls off.


Have focus on the other tank so you can see his debuffs.

[Ghostile]

Worry not, only abuse I get, when running LFR, is when the other tank forces me to solo tank things. 68 stacks of the lei shen tank debuff makes me sad.

Besides that, keep aggro and try to play by tacs and hope the other tank does the same.

For addons, DBM and threat plates should be enough.

Edit: Putting the other tank in focus frame helps alot.

[Terridon]

Just know how the fight goes, and when you enter you say something like "Hi, it's first time i'm tanking so please help me out a bit if i do something wrong". Usually a couple will say it's all good, and others will have noticed.
Really rare i see those doing that getting any abuse, and people tend to come to their defense if it is. Seen some being so bad that the people in the raid politely asked them to leave, because they didn't have what it take, but it wasn't in a rude manner.
Obviously it can still happen, but if you've talked at first and explained the situation, people tend to be a lot more forgiving.

[goltnum9]

Hello mate, welcome to this side of the world

1. For LFR tanking effectively means, keep aggro (not only boss fights but also trash) . Specially in fights that include many mobs. You need to be aware if something is not hitting you and instead went for a dps (mostly dps fault but you can fix it with a simple taunt) or a healer(mostly tanks fault).

If the group is mental capable for conversation then you need to point out that people that get aggro need to come close to you in order to take back the aggro and not panic and run away from you.

Also tanking effectively means that you need to use cooldowns. Exept your spell priorities that you use to generate aggro dmg and active mitigation, you have cooldowns that decrease your dmg taken (3m or 1m cooldowns etc). Put them in a special bar that you can track them easily and make sure that you use them while you are tanking.

2. Tank the boss away from raid, i mean not facing the raid. This will help melee, who need to stand behind boss and raid will avoid any cone/cleave dmg that most bosses do. Do your research if the boss has cleave or cone dmg so you will be prepared.

3. You need an addon that will help you easily see when the other tank has a debuff on him or how many stacks of debuff.
Most tanks strategies include taunt in X stacks of debuff, or taunt every debuff. If you don't have something like that you will probbly screw it up.
Reading icy-veins strategies for example, or dungeon journal will give you a fair idea of what you should expect in each fight.


Its also really important to communicate with you other tank. If you pre-arrange with a wisper the number of stacks you need to taunt of each other or , who will take adds and who boss, then everything will be easier and both tanks will have a solid idea of what they will expect.

Its no hard to tank these days, just learn 1,2 aspects of the boss fight and use your cooldowns.

You can read more in http://www.icy-veins.com/tanking-guide-wow

have fun

[Deleted]

The only thing you have to learn is this -

Know what you have to do as a tank on each fight. If you know that, then you'll be able to ignore everything else.

That's for LFR atleast.

[hollafame]

A big add-on that will help you is called VEM. It is basically DBM but instead of just flashing warnings at you, it has a voice that tells you what you should be doing during that situation. I.E. On Sha of Pride, 10 seconds before the adds pop-up it will say "Adds incoming....3...2...1....DPS Adds."

Also telling them its your first time will remove a lot of their reactive mechanism to say 'this tank is noob/bad/dumb/etc.'

[tss]

Tanking ain't that hard. Yes, LFR will yell at you like so many armchair quarterbacks, but screw them. As said above, hit up some dungeons and get your basics down. Then hit up LFR and work with the other tank. Most times I have had the other tank be very helpful and understanding. Have him explain the off-tank situation (most mechanics revolve around a simple tank switch) and once you're comfortable, go head-on into main tanking.

I've been a tank ever since I started (WOTLK, right after LFD happened) and tank abuse surely isn't uncommon. You and the healer are easy targets for blame, moreso in LFR where DPS often completely ignore mechanics and blame you for dying instead of understanding why they died. You do have a level of responsibility in responding to mechanics you can't avoid, but most times it's just a debuff that requires a tank swap... it's simple shit.

[Deleted]

I still remember when our guilds fully HC geared tank got kicked from LFR because he couldnt hold aggro from a dps warrior in prot stance...my point is you shouldnt worry what they say/do to you because ultimately they are the cesspit of the game and you're better then them. Just sign up, do ya best and enjoy yourself. If anyone makes it hard for you just leave.

[banur]

1. Be able to tank effectively
2. Help the other members of the raid
3. Not screw up fights

All you need for LFR is
1. brain
2. don't try that in LFR
3. eyes

The first one includes knowing how to play your tank. Practice in heroics and ask your guildies to create situation so that you can learn to react to different things: dps pulling (aggro management), too much adds (cooldowns), lack of healing (survival). You want to be on top of your tanking game for LFR.
Second: Helping in LFR will screw things up. Almost all things can be prevented if one plays how it is supposed to be and those who don't, won't matter in LFR. Let them die.
Third one is about the boss mechanics. Useful hints are in this thread: dungeon journal, /focus the other tank for debuffs, copying good tanks.

One thing from me: You will get flak when you can't play, LFR isn't a playground. Players are not there to help you or teach you, they expect you come prepared. If it is your first time on a boss, be extra alert for mechanics, have a cheat sheet with important mechanic break downs next to you.
My last tip is to run on reset day: it is invaluable to have geared dps, healers and co-tank. It will ensure your run is smoother than later that week.

"Hi, it's first time i'm tanking so please help me out a bit if i do something wrong"

Please don't. Know how the boss is meant to be played. I really can't stand unconfident players. You are the tank, you know the tactic, you can tank it.

[Deleted]

Am looking at Tanking in LFR Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar but am a bit dubious of it as I have seen the potential abuse that Tanks get and/or the just plain lack of Knowledge of fights and mechanics.

I feel your pain. There's a lot going on in LFR that's not being addressed by pure class roles (ie. tanking/dps/healing). Most notably the role of Raid Leader is unknown and unassigned in most groups even though the raid finder does assign a "member of the raid with red text" but that does not solve the issue of actually having someone leading the raid. The reason I'm telling this is that tanks are by far the most susceptible to bad planning or miscommunicated strategies which can result in Raid AoE damage, tank deaths, boss healing, etc.

If these things lead to a wipe most people go venting on the tanks since it's practically their fault (because they're the ones moving/not moving the boss) but this is just a scapegoat. The real reason is that probably no one assigned the procedure of how to do a boss encounter and tanks weren't in-sync with how to deal with various mechanics. If the tanks talk between each other in whispers and have done the fights before it usually isn't a problem. But most of the time you either have a tank who doesn't know what he's supposed to do and if no one tells him before the pull, he'll do what his raid role tells him to: Get Aggro.

As a dps, you just passively follow a) the raid b) the boss and these things do not bother you so you never receive any heat for it (except on the rare occassion one has to single-target instead of AoE something - hi ToES protectors).
As a healer... meh, LFR doesn't really need 6 healers. Just push buttons harder.

TL;DR: Tanks are being unfairly attributed as the de-facto raid leaders and when something goes wrong strategy-wise they usually take the blame (Spoils, Garrosh, Primordius Healing, Lei Shen platforms, ...) From my observation this is what turns away most people from tanking LFR (or being a tank, queue as dps). Considering the amount of heat that's going around already, it just doesn't seem to be a rewarding use of one's time. In fact the only reason you'd queue as a tank is either being very social and patient to fill in as the raid leader or wanting to shorten the queue time.

LFR is an anti-social tool meant to dumb down raid encounters to a level where everyone can essentially "solo" it. This is working fairly well for dps and healers but tanks are expected to pretty much do most of what they're doing in flex/normal/heroic groups plus raid leading.

[Deleted]

1. raid chat off and don't care.

[AeneasBK]

Whisper your co-tank as soon as you get in, check you're both familiar with the fights; be friendly to your other tank and they will be friendly back. The main reason raid rages at tanks is because the tanks do'nt communicate with each other and it causes a wipe (taunting for tank swaps primarily)