Taunting Basics

[Slamdew]

Alot of the 10 man raids usually have a MT and an OT, both have a role of taunting off each other if the boss/situation arises/required for mechanics of the fight. Can some one tell me what I need to do as a prot-pali to taunt from main tank and then allow the main tank to taunt off me to repull agro. I have heard it spoken of but never defined.

Thanx
Slamdew- Mugthol

[inthedrops]

This is kind of an interesting question. There must be some simple things that you don't understand yet.

There is nothing special required to taunt. Just taunt. When the other tank needs to taunt, they just taunt too.

Do you know how agro and threat work? You should probably read on on that a bit and then maybe taunts and what they actually do will make more sense.

Some links to get you started:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Threat
http://www.wowwiki.com/Agro
http://www.wowwiki.com/Taunt

[econ21]

We have two taunts - Hand of Reckoning and Righteous defence. The former is what you would usually use to taunt off a fellow tank - it's easier, as you are already targeting the boss and so just press the Hand of Reckoning button. But the latter can be a backup in case your first taunt misses - you will need to target the co-tank (it is often good to set them as your focus so you can target them quickly and see what debuffs etc they have).

Taunts have a fairly high chance of missing, as they use spell hit rather than melee hit (18% miss rate on level 83 bosses rather than 8%, IIRC with no hit rating). However, there is a glyph that greatly reduces that chance of a taunt missing, so that if you are hit capped for melee, you pretty much never miss a taunt.

The trickiest part about taunting is knowing when to do it and that varies a lot by the boss. Your best bet is to read up on the boss on wowwiki or ask experienced tanks in your raid. For example, with Saurfang, you have to taunt whenever the other tank gets one debuff (rune of blood?) whereas with Festergut, you should taunt whenever the other tank has accumulated quite a few stacks of a debuff (8 or 9) but before they have 10. Often you are taunted off when you have a specific number of stacks of a debuff and can taunt the boss back onto you as soon as those stacks have worn off (the frost boss in VoA is an example - let the initial tank get 4-5 stacks, then tanks can taunt whenever they have no stacks).

There are diminishing returns to taunts, so that they can ultimately become ineffective if over-used, but this is usually not a problem if tanks correctly use taunts.

[Nikachelle]

We have two taunts - Hand of Reckoning and Righteous defence. But the latter can be a backup in case your first taunt misses - you will need to target the co-tank (it is often good to set them as your focus so you can target them quickly and see what debuffs etc they have)..

Um, not for YEARS have you had to target the co-tank to use Righteous Defense. Just target the boss as normal, and use it.

[Gamingdevil]

We have two taunts - Hand of Reckoning and Righteous defence. But the latter can be a backup in case your first taunt misses - you will need to target the co-tank (it is often good to set them as your focus so you can target them quickly and see what debuffs etc they have)..

Um, not for YEARS have you had to target the co-tank to use Righteous Defense. Just target the boss as normal, and use it.

Indeed, it's been quite a while since a patch changed it so you automatically use the target of target to use RD when targeting a hostile mob.

Also, the chance for a spell to miss on a mob 3 levels higher than you (boss level) is 17%, not 18%.

[Arcand]

Not so basic, but I'll toss it in - if your taunts have failed or are on
cooldown, you can also cause an aggro switch by putting Hand of Protection
on the other tank.

That's not the same as taunting, and bad things could happen if you
do it without understanding the threat/aggro mechanics behind it. But
it is one more thing in the toolbox...

[Treck]

If both of your taunts should miss at the same time, you better stop playing for the day, the odds that you spontaniously cumbust at your chair might be about as high.

[Nikachelle]

If both of your taunts should miss at the same time, you better stop playing for the day, the odds that you spontaniously cumbust at your chair might be about as high.

I've had that happen, on multiple occasions. It's really not that rare.

[inthedrops]

If both of your taunts should miss at the same time, you better stop playing for the day, the odds that you spontaniously cumbust at your chair might be about as high.

I've had that happen, on multiple occasions. It's really not that rare.

Twice to me on Sindragosa back during progression. Darn frost resist gear.

[masterpoobaa]

Back in ToC T9 2set bonus was nice. 2sec reduction of your single target taunt.

[blakk]

nika are you sure those are taunt misses and not resists due to multiple taunts within 15s of each other? i've had both miss exactly once while i had 0 hit rating and no glyph

[theckhd]

nika are you sure those are taunt misses and not resists due to multiple taunts within 15s of each other? i've had both miss exactly once while i had 0 hit rating and no glyph

Well, there's almost a 3% chance of missing both with 0 hit rating and no glyph. So rare, but certainly not impossible. Bound to happen to you once in a while.

[Arcand]

And you aren't always just yanking a boss off another tank. See Horde Champions or
Anub'arak or Dreamwalker for situations where you can very easily have both taunts
on cooldown and wish you had a third.

[Nikachelle]

nika are you sure those are taunt misses and not resists due to multiple taunts within 15s of each other? i've had both miss exactly once while i had 0 hit rating and no glyph

Well, there's almost a 3% chance of missing both with 0 hit rating and no glyph. So rare, but certainly not impossible. Bound to happen to you once in a while.

If you've tanked enough stuff in this game, then you know that anything can and WILL happen. So yeah, it's rare for both taunts to miss, but holy god is it possible. It's also got a high probability to do it when you least want it. My most memorable ones were on Algalon and on Saurfang back when they were progression. Not fun.

[theckhd]

It's also got a high probability to do it when you least want it.

Well of course. Murphy's Law is right up there with the First Law of Thermodynamics when it comes to consistency.