Tanking Questions

[Svpernova09]

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.

Same for Maul, !Maul does absolutely nothing now that Maul is not canceled by any other ability.

[Multibocks]

Paladins ftw, although I have been tanking ICC25 raids with my DK and i've gotten pretty good with it. DK tanks are a strange breed, but honestly you can go to pwnwear.com and check the rotation and write a castsequence for them. Why? Well their rotations are usally long, but if an ability fails to connect you just go to the next strike anyways. Never had aggro problems with it. although tanking has turned easymode since the days of aggro management.

[Jheusse]

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.

Dammit ualaa you're making me go "Hmmm"

While the traditional pally/shammy team is leveling I also have 4 L60 boomkins on my alt accounts gathering dust.
My main has an ICC geared feral on it.

You're making me wonder how fast the bear could boost the kids and run them as feral. Also wonder how much healing procs the 5 of them would generate (my raiding cat runs about 60% crit and not far off in bear).

Biggest barrier to druid multi for me is the shifting management and how that echos through quickbars, especially since I've used Dominos to have 2 separate bars that follow the shift state (1 thru = and Shift1 thru shift=).

Worthwhile project I'll be interested in how it turns out.

[Svpernova09]

Biggest barrier to druid multi for me is the shifting management and how that echos through quickbars, especially since I've used Dominos to have 2 separate bars that follow the shift state (1 thru = and Shift1 thru shift=).

Worthwhile project I'll be interested in how it turns out.

If you're tanking in bearform and you shift out. It means you just died. There really isn't much reason to shift out (unless you need to dash to something and charge is on CD when you aren't tanking, or when your not tanking and you absolutely must innervate someone)

[Jayne]

If you're tanking in bearform and you shift out. It means you just died. There really isn't much reason to shift out (unless you need to dash to something and charge is on CD when you aren't tanking, or when your not tanking and you absolutely must innervate someone)

Ooo so true. Memories: First time doing heroic Utgarde Pinnacle with my team... Fire a few harpoons, get him down and then... o' shit forgot to switch to bear form again. Dead. Happy days - though I still sometimes forget it!

[Catamer]

I vote pally->bear as the two easiest, and lets face it the most versatile.
if you choose not be a tank you can easily dual spec and a great healer.

Pally generate threat by just standing there and letting stuff beat on them.
Warriors need too much micro management, they require procs and or combos.
DKs are fun but they can't use a shield.

[Jheusse]

If you're tanking in bearform and you shift out. It means you just died. There really isn't much reason to shift out (unless you need to dash to something and charge is on CD when you aren't tanking, or when your not tanking and you absolutely must innervate someone)

Yeah ain't that the truth. From old memories of trying to time the bearpot macro in TBC to shift out and pot between boss swings (this was before you could potion or use items without shifting out).

More looking at the slaves than the tank, he's got the simplest job in the world. But if the kitty slaves need to drop some hots on the bear or travelform hightail it or even "oops I critted too much time to bear up", there's just a lot of potential configurations.

At the end of the day I don't think it'll matter too much to my guys, since the raiding feral will outthreat the snot out of the other 4 for a long long time and likely will do bear form and spec in cat gear until at least the HoR level instances. And though my pally is questing/instancing at level with his shammies, the bear would be flatly boosting the baby kitties.

Definitely keep us advised.

Oh and to the original post, no doubt at all that paladin is the easiest tank to play/box, and I agree with the druid being second. The one button pally tanking macro is at least 4 different places on this site, and super's one button bear tanking macro is in the macro compendium, which he used to tank through ulduar when it was current content.

[alcattle]

So I guess the question now is, is DK too hard to learn tanking or do I just sux, and stick with the Huntard

[Jheusse]

NO such thing as too hard.

Only question is where your personal valuation of headache vs. payoff falls.

DK has greater learning curve and configuration to effectively tank the referenced content compared to a paladin or a bear.

But a DK can do it, people have done it with multibox.

It's just a matter of whether your tolerance for the tinkering phase to get proficient is high enough, or you just want to go smack things.

[Steph]

I play all four tank classes and have all in raid-shape (4.7-5.6k gearscore).

For a multiboxer, I'd recommend a bear tank. No question about it. Here is why:
- SWIPE: 360 degree spammable aoe that moves with you.
(hammer hits only stuff in front of you, consecration and dnd stay in place. shockwave is only frontal cone).

You simply have less attention needed for targetting of mobs, planning your tanking spots and the like. That is quite handy when you may be distracted by dpsing and healing =]