Comments on: WTF is with all these Emerald Dragonfails!

By: Kelwind

Kelwind — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:38:58 +0000

Lately (well, I haven’t done Emerald Dragonshrine in a bit) I just stand in the lake. Yeah, the reduced casting speed sucks, but as long as nobody’s being totally stupid about taking damage, I can keep everyone alive just fine.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:26:19 +0000

Huh. You know, I’ve tanked and healed that both as bear and ‘din. I think my whole strategy for not pulling aggro is just not to heal until tank/dps have aggro. Usually, it’s been my experience that “feisty” dps will pull aggro before me there, and tanks are usually robust enough that they don’t get too hurt.

The tank you were dealing with therefore must have truly been atrocious, and the dps unusually mindful of threat. 0_o

(As an aside, DK tanks should almost never be without AoE threat. It may be the case that they’ve forgotten about Blood Boil for large packs of trash, which is one blood/death rune, only one rune tap away, but even tab targeting with heart strike works wonders. DKs are threat monsters – the problem is not being so squishy in the meantime.)

By: Beshara

Beshara — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:39:09 +0000

One thing my husband (pally tank) always says is if a dps dies it’s the healer’s fault or their own fault, if the tank dies it’s the healer’s fault, but if the healer dies it’s the tank’s fault.

I hate the Tyrande fight so much as a Disc priest, especially if I am the only one at range. So much movement to avoid the orbs and the moon lance things. Luckily, I haven’t had a bad tank experience like that, but it doesn’t surprise me that others have. I mostly run with my husband, so we just have to deal with stupid dps. Such as a hunter who gets hit by one of the light orbs on the Benedictus fight, and proceeds to run forward and stand in the pool of bad light left behind.

On my Mage, I saw a group blame the shaman healer for a wipe when the tank pulled while the healer was drinking across the room. The shaman was a good healer, just didn’t have the gear for chain pulling. This tank also ignored the ranged mobs, and the mobs would be hitting the healer during the whole fight. It was at the point where I would pull the mob off of the healer as Frost and try to survive until the tank realized the mob was there. I’d rather die then let the healer die when I’m dpsing. The healer even called it out during the fight, but the tank ignored him.

It would be nice if someone filling the tank role actually had the awareness to tank. Hopefully your post will help some of the newer tanks out there become better.

By: JD Kenada

JD Kenada — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:50:24 +0000

You ended it with my biggest argument all along. Gear doesn’t make a player good. Gear tells you where a player has been.

Not just tanks, but when it comes to players in general I will always take the undergeared one who knows her role and follow direction over the one in i400 gear that dies in the fire. Repeatedly.

As a healer (and Holy Priest same as yourself) I appreciate this article. The only thing I’d add in is the role where the party succeeds and as the healer sits down to mana up, the tank is two rooms down the hall screaming for heals…

By: Suxxy

Suxxy — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:46:18 +0000

As a tank, trying to get healers to understand healing agro seems to be beyond me.
On Mannoroth, the final boss in the Well of Eternity, where the adds pour out of the portal, I tell healers I will be on the boss’ right shoulder near the portal, and I ask the healer to stack on me.
I was in a run with a guildie dps, I asked the healer to stack as usual. The response in /party:
“I know how to play”
“I’m not a scrub like most of the jerks who play”
…
So, arrogant; but at least they’ll do the right thing… right?!!!
…
No.
They stood about 20 yards in front of the boss, drawing all the adds to them.

Yes, I could have charged to the healer & got them all… but I didn’t. Healer died (my guildie & I laughed hard on vent). All the ads came to me (via my hunter guildie’s MD).
Swipe/thrash crits with Leader of the Pack kept me at full health and we downed the boss quite easily.
I rezed the healer & they left group straight away… /sigh I didn’t even get a chance to /golfclap them ;(

By: Gus

Gus — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:33:22 +0000

Learn adapt overcome in this case You have to learn to not pre-hot the tank
You will only heal him when his health goes below 50% this Will make him aware
That he needs heals and after he sees your big heal restoring him and the mobs
Chase after You hopefully he Will charge after them and all Will be good

By: Xew

Xew — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:38:28 +0000

you didn’t reply “Yes, the fact we didn’t wipe when you couldn’t stay out of the stupid, is more than fine. LTMove.”?

I don’t tolerate people critiquing my healing when we lose because they’re too important to move / be aware of the environment.

By: Xew

Xew — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:34:41 +0000

I don’t run the new dungeons anymore – and only run 10 man DS to help guildies out… but back when I was, and Tyrande came up, I’d switch to booming. Still had plenty of heals to keep everyone up (plus I’d almost always run with a second boomie guildmate – so he’d help too) – and armor / dps to burn down anything that the tank didn’t catch.

No one seemed to mind… especially since we never wiped.

I suspect paladins don’t have the problem much, Shaman can dps as resto anyway, and priests… well, Holy I can see having that problem (as BBB notes) – but Disc might have an easier time of it. Stronger shields and better fade… maybe.

By: Jac

Jac — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:53:00 +0000

Of all my healers, the most problematic one is resto druid, until I hit a winning formula.

I don’t heal.

That is, unless I’m right on top of the tank or on one of the moon puddles.

Too many new tanks just charge ahead for the light…

By: Gameldar

Gameldar — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:03:25 +0000

I agree tidy plates (tug-of-threat ftw) should be default ui – I noticed it again having been tanking on beta. Before (I knew) it existed I would tank without it – but you had to be more zoomed in (I normally tank at max camera distance) and watching what way the mobs are facing and/or tabbing through and seeing what things weren’t actually targeting me. Admittedly in those days it was before LFD and I was running with guildies so I could generally tell who was the one to steal aggro (and they got my vigilance – this was on my warrior). There have been some improvements but the ‘lost threat’ warnings that the default UI provides are next to useless.