TankYouVeryMuch wrote:Thing's have been getting better on the aggro side. Next big issue is, I am noticing that I lack in DPS severely. Topping out at around 7k on heroics. Is this normal for my gearing?
I am able to enter ZA and ZG, but if my DPS stays at this, I refuse to beat others and my self up until I figure something out.
If you can get into Zuls, I imagine your gear is fine, and will only improve. (I'm assuming that your int gear that your armory link shows is not what you use to tank in.) Let's talk about your
pull tactics. I make sure that I have a definite plan before each pull, and consider it my mission to Win the Omen Meter on every mob in existence, all the time. (Though obviously not in a raid when trash should be split.
)
Questions to ponder...These are some questions that I'm sure all of the experienced tanks here could answer in varying detail -- both in terms of what their tactic is and
why. Some of these are leading, and likely have answers that you already
know, but you might not be putting all of that knowledge into practice.
- Do you mark a Skull target for people to focus their threat on? We can front load a lot of threat on the pull, even without Inquisition, so you can often temporarily ignore the skull in order to put enough threat on everything else that they won't mind people cleaving.
- Have you mastered the basic 939 rotation?
- Do you use (3-target) Avenger's Shield every time it procs (while making sure not to waste CS or ShoR opportunities)?
- When do you use Divine Plea and/or Inquisition?
- When do you choose to use Hammer of Righteousness instead of Crusader Strike? What guides this choice?
- How often do you change targets during a pull?
- Do you use Tidy Plates? (If not, you should. Go do it. Now.)
- When is it OK to lose threat on a target?
- When do you taunt?
My answers to some of this...For example, when I see a pull of more than one mob, I mark a skull, front-load DPS by doing
Exo->(inq)->AS, and then put something on the other one with a judgement or crusader strike. In groups, I often exorcise one target, and then shield toss a different one, and judge a 5th. I use Hammer liberally early on, rather than CS, so that I get initial snap threat on things. I use inquisition at the start, as snap threat is more important to me than long term DPS (using it after Vengeance stacks up). When something is almost dead, I'm often OK with losing threat on it to the mage, and I take extra care to do more AOE threat when I have a DK in the party.
I often disregard a fair amount of the 939 rotation at the start in order to get damage on the entire pull -- I'll often go
AS->Judge to get threat on 4 things, and then use Cons as my filler in my normal rotation's first iteration. I frequently start a pull with Exorcism, despite it not seeming like much of a TPS increase over
INQ->AS->CS, simply because DPS tend to start up their pew-pew rockets as soon as the boss targets me, and having (Exo+AS)'s threat on the target rather than merely Avenger's Shield's threat is handy. That said, for long term damage you really want to be mindful of the rotation, and find convenient times to use Wings. (I don't use it on the pull, though arguably that's the most important time to do it.)
Also, don't be afraid to ask for CC. Your gear may support it, but it also has the side effect of letting you put threat on fewer targets at once, and then taunt->AS or taunt->judge (or taunt->ShoR) the sheep when you're ready for it.
I think it's critically important that my goal is to have a commanding threat lead on every single mob, and their mothers, despite my mage's constant efforts to suicide by excessive threat. Tidy Plates helps me monitor the garden of hate, and quickly see when things are slipping away, but mainly it boils down to:
Do the 939 rotation, tab target relatively frequently. Of course I care about survival too, but that dominates relatively little of my attention compared to the constant fun of maintaining threat.
