Tanking Questions

[Jayne]

Just keeping up running along with some of the PuG tanks is a fecking hassle as a healer or DPS xD

[kadaan]

My original team was with a Feral Druid tank, but I switched to Balance/Resto for raiding so I started a DK and now tank with it in Blood spec. I find it much easier (and more fun) than bear tanking.

My bear tank macro was:
/castsequence reset=combat Mangle (Bear), Swipe, Swipe, Swipe
/cast !Maul

I started out with one for trash and one with lacerate instead of swipe for bosses, but never had threat issues with swipe so just left it.

Pros:
- Health pool was higher (~50k vs my DK's 40k)
- AE taunt
- Didn't have to make sure I was defense capped


My DK tank macro is:
/castsequence reset=combat Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Death Strike, Heart Strike, Death Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike, Heart Strike
/cast !Rune Strike

Pros:
- Death Grip is an AWESOME tool to have to pull casters in, one thing I hated as a bear tank. D&D is also great on pulls, and D&D+Pestilence is better AE threat AND damage than swipe.
- Heart strike hits 2 targets, so it's almost as good as the maul glyph.
- The extra healing from Death Strike is very nice for boxers. Mine currently heals for 5-6k every ~5 seconds. On bosses that don't hit too hard, it's enough to keep my tank healed without any direct healing.

[Ualaa]

A question on the !Maul and !Rune Strike keys.

In my paladin macro:
/cast [mounted] !Crusader Aura
/cast [nomount] !Retribution Aura

The !Aura, will be cast once and never again, until the mounted/nomounted condition changes.
I can push the macro 10 times in succession, and it is only the one cast.

Does that mean, you want a single Maul or Rune Strike?
Or in the case of combat abilities, does it mean you will push it once and it won't turn off.
And then after having hit, another push will turn it on again?

[thinus]

A question on the !Maul and !Rune Strike keys.

In my paladin macro:
/cast [mounted] !Crusader Aura
/cast [nomount] !Retribution Aura

The !Aura, will be cast once and never again, until the mounted/nomounted condition changes.
I can push the macro 10 times in succession, and it is only the one cast.

Does that mean, you want a single Maul or Rune Strike?
Or in the case of combat abilities, does it mean you will push it once and it won't turn off.
And then after having hit, another push will turn it on again?

!Rune Strike - this is a left over from when Rune Strike was a toggle. It isn't a toggle anymore and the ! shouldn't be there really.

[Ualaa]

How about with Maul?
Does that mean you get one maul and that is it?
Or it won't unpress the button before it finishes, but that you can maul several times in one fight?

[thinus]

With both Rune Strike and Maul the abilties used to affect the next melee swing. I don't think that this is still the case. When it affected the next swing the ability was a toggle and the ! was necessary to prevent the ability from being toggled on and then off if you hit the macro twice before your next melee swing.

I am fairly certain that this is no longer the case with Rune Strike, not sure about Maul.

[thinus]

/cast [mounted] !Crusader Aura
/cast [nomount] !Retribution Aura

The !Aura, will be cast once and never again, until the mounted/nomounted condition changes.
I can push the macro 10 times in succession, and it is only the one cast.

I don't think it has anything to do with the changing of your mounted/nomounted state. Try the following:
- mount up and run the macro above
- manually change your Aura to Ret by clicking it
- run the macro again

Does your aura change back to Crusader? The ! will check if the aura is active, if it is then it does nothing, if it is not then it makes the aura active. The mounted/nomounted state is just for you to control which aura you want to be active but does not in essence affect the behaviour of the !.

With Maul and Rune Strike the idea is the same. The ! makes Maul / Rune Strike active so it will trigger on the next melee swing and the ! will prevent setting these abilities back to inactive if the command is triggered again before the next melee swing.

But...

I don't think it is necessary, it might have been at some stage but I don't think that is the case today. As far as I know.

[Ualaa]

That makes sense, thanks.

If I change to a non Crusader Aura, while mounted.
Pressing the macro switches back to Crusader.

Checking if the key is active, makes sense.
With maul, it is supposed to increase the damage of your next melee swing.
But if it is pressed again before the swing occurs, it doesn't usually maul.
I'll mess around with including !Maul in the bear sequence.

I've decided to switch the Balance to Ferals.
And am building macros and adapting my IS Boxer configuration to melee.
Ideally have bear/cat moves on the same hotkeys which work well together.
And a toggle, to switch between either form on a per toon basis.
Cat is the dps, but bear is nice when you are focused by melee.
Anyway, tweaking macros today..

Thanks for the input.

[mmmbox]

Honestly i think DPS is the hardest.

you can get by as a crapy tank as long as you have the gear, you can get by as a crappy healer as long as you at least heal.

But as a crappy dps you will get fired ASAP from any raid.

in ICC you can get by with both average healers and tanks, but if your DPS suck then all encounters will become a pita.

Tho my experience is limited as to having played tank, healer and dps in ICC 10

[alcattle]

I agree in one way, once you can hold aggro, you have done your job. Healing varies with the damage and threat, and how many times you have to change targets. Dps can put out enough DPS or they fail. Is it harder to put out more DPS? Not really, doing things right and having a good gear level will raise your DPS. I guess my point is starting out, what is hardest? Gear and skill Level my toons are close, but the tank cannot run most regular dungeons and the hunter has done most of the heriocs.