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Starting Heroics: TPS Output

Riposte
Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:31 am

Starting Heroics: TPS Output

I've seen numbers put forth for mitigation/health for starting heroics, but I'm curious what TPS would suffice for starting off in heroics.

Background: I've successfully tanked a few heroics, but still occassionally have issues holding aggro. I'm showing between 2600 and 3150 TPS in H VH, and I'm thinking maybe it should be higher. I had a warrior that was grabbing aggro pretty frequenty (partly his fault since he should have been watching, but...), and it got me wondering what level of TPS will keep the bad dudes mad at me as opposed to my group while allowing the dps to kill and the healer to not oom.

Issues: I'm playing from a location where I don't have the best internet connection. I usually experience about 800ms of latency, but at times that can drop as low as 650ms if I'm lucky. This often causes my rotation to fall off the 969, and as a bonus puts a little delay in taunting stuff.

The way forward: Mostly I'd be interested in hearing what a "decent" TPS is, and tricks that others have used to overcome latency issues. Anything that might help is appreciated.

I currently cannot access armory to provide the link, but I play Riposte on Dath'Remar. Thanks in advance for the help.
Epimer
Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:52 am
I'm not sure what numbers you should be looking at, but I think it's worth keeping in mind that the 969 rotation is the optimal single target threat rotation. What mobs are you losing? First marked kill? Stragglers to the AoEing mage who doesn't watch Omen?

I run with a few people who AoE with merry abandon, and a bursty-as-hell Enhance Shaman, so I really don't use 969 on trash - it's more a priority system with HotR and Consecrate (if >3 mobs) at the top to make sure I'm spreading threat around everything, and saving the SoRs for skull. To be honest, I usually build up a hefty threat lead on skull on then make sure everything else is taken care of (soloing the Portal Guardian adds in VH, for example).
Riposte
Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:21 am
Good point, I should have probably been a little more specific. The two times (same run) that concerned me enough to check my TPS were on the fire dog boss and the last boss. In both cases the dps warrior grabbed aggro well into the fight (and ended up dying, so I guess he didn't learn the first time).

I've read that Cyanigosa resets threat on the vacuum attack, so I try to re-open up with shield bash/toss for a decent threat lead. On the fire dog, I thought I was doing pretty well with my 969 until he pulled aggro and died. It might have just been this particular warrior trying to flaunt his e-peen, but it got me curious as to just how much TPS is realistically expected of a tank starting heroics.

He also grabbed threat on the trash, but as you pointed out I wasn't doing a real 969 rotation on that, nor did I really care if he grabbed aggro. I figured if he didn't want to grab aggro he would have known enough to avoid it. Mostly I would pre-place a consecrate on the portal, toss my shield, then HotR for a good initial threat, and then mash the other buttons as needed. Portal guardians were never an issue because they died too quickly for anybody to steal aggro off me.
Levantine
Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:24 am
Did he pull aggro and die, or stand in some fire and die?
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Levantine: 80 Frost [27k HP, 27k Armor, 544 Def]
Anzen: 30 Elemental [Resto in the making]
Riposte
Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:25 am
Don't laugh...

He definately wasn't standing in the fire...

Because I was. (But I didn't die)

I actually saw the boss target him, so I taunted, and then shortly after the boss targetted him again and killed him before I could taunt again.
Levantine
Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:29 am
You probably should move out of that fire, as a side note.

Anyways, just sounds like he was being a fucktard and dpsing in prot stance or something, to be honest.
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Levantine: 80 Frost [27k HP, 27k Armor, 544 Def]
Anzen: 30 Elemental [Resto in the making]
Barathorn
Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:40 am
Unless he seriously outgears you there shouldn't be a threat issue.

I run at around 1200-1400 DPS[I have no idea what that is in TPS] and the only thing that gets anywhere near me are our 2 DK's and our Elemental Shaman who all push out 2400-2800 DPS.

Sounds like he was being a muppet tbh.
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Riposte
Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:32 am
It is entirely possible, even probable that he seriously outgeared me. I don't remember exactly what the recount figures were, but I think I was sitting around 17% of total damage done, and he was second on the list. A DK was first on the list, and the SPriest was third.

As for the fire (2 posts above), yeah, I got out of the fire once I remembered that standing in it was bad (the ticking 2k damage per second helped remind me), but that was after the warrior died.
Vioarr
Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:57 am
Here's your armory link:

I was doing heroics back when JoL and 2 SHR were available, so my TPS was through the roof; currently I do about 6-8k tps depending on the fight and my gear, but obviously this is because of raid gear. Your gear will improve over time so don't be too concerned about the people who pull aggro from you, I would imagine that 3k tps is pretty good all things considered.

As it's been said here before, if the healers die because of aggro it's your fault; if the DPS dies because of aggro it's their fault. This is more true in heroics where there are no real enrage timers to deal with.
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kenshin648
Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:43 am
They werent running with defensive stance up were they? Im getting the feeling that its a possibility if they arent just terribly overgeared.
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theothersteve7
Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:57 am
Here's a lesson I learned a little while ago that has made me a few friends: The only purpose of generating threat is to keep the party alive.

I had a well-geared shaman in H Nexus (easy heroic btw) apologizing for grabbing threat off me constantly, but he'd always kill his target before it mattered anyway. The only real problems are DKs in Frost (presumably just people who forgot to click out after soloing), pets that taunt (same), and people who pull early. Otherwise, if they can pull aggro off you, they're probably prepared to handle it.

Edit: After re-reading your post, I'd also like to say that threat is the DPS's responsibility, and the tank helps. Unless you're blatantly lying about what you did, you were generating far more threat than you had to.
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Amaranthea
Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:26 pm
@OP: I have a strong suspicion the warrior outgeared you and was spamming heroic strike.
Arnock
Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:24 pm
If you are running 3k+ tps in a heroic, you shouldn't have too many issues in pugs,

I'm guessing it's one of 3 issues

1. Warrior significantly outgeared you, or perhapse was spamming HS in his rotation
2. Warrior might have been in defensive stance (not likely, believe many core dps moves are unusable in def. stance)
3. Righteous fury fell off, hey, it happens to all of us, and there's been times i've killed 3 dps throughout 3 pulls before I realized it =P
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