tank transition

[Phantron]

From expansion to expansion, only PoP, GoD, and some of DoD have real melee powerhouses relative to the gear you can get at that time. The PoP hard hitters can mostly be deal with now by simply inflation and being level 70 allows taunting most PoP ubers trivially. Unless you're just doing Tacvi now there's really no content that are hard on tanks if you're adequately geared for the encounter. Of course if your tanks are not adequately geared it's always going to be tougher than it should be.

For example, I see people mention Queen as an example of heavy melee DPS. However from a gear point of view you're expected to have done Tacvi before Queen and just about anything in Tacvi out DPS the queen easily, so therefore Queen is not a heavy melee fight because you should've beaten stuff with even heavier melee DPS before. If you've never done Tacvi, then yes Queen may look difficult, but you're skipping certain steps in progression so that's to be expected.

[Darinae]

Fortitude is equal to Voiddance for a monk.

Furious is equal to Whirlwind for a monk.

Anyway, the reason I like the /rsay first Gunnar is one, hopefully only one tank will try to step up (remember this is for emergencies, tank line up is down, etc), second healers should be watching /rsay, and HoTT, not just HoTT. The point is let the first couple people to get aggro die if you can hold a tank up, so the first couple on HoTT won't be the one being healed. It avoids two warriors stepping up and neither one getting heals (and the possibility of both blowing AE Taunt). /shrug It's just the way we do it. Fortitude/Furious won't always be up.

Oh we just broke into Qvic and killed Queen five days later. No one really geared beyond some Qvic and Time/Eles.

[Rendus]

I'd just like to chime in as one on the other side..

As a cleric, I love having the current, official, "This is the person you're supposed to be healing now" be called when it changes. Yeah, we have tanking orders. Yeah, we all like to think the MA won't go down. But seeing confirmation that Dudebag Mctanktwo is taking over after Strong Mcbighuge bit it is rather nice - At that point, we can stop assist healing whoever keeps grabbing aggro, and heal the one that's supposed to have it.

HOTT is nice, but anyone that's watched a mob's HOTT fly through 50 targets in 3 seconds knows that when it hits the fan, HOTT isn't quite as reliable for targeting as one might hope for.

But it's all in the style of guild you're in. I've been in fights where the policy is don't heal anyone but the tank that's next on the list, even if that tank's AFK (I left that guild :P) to slap assist as fast as you can and hope for the best.

[Gunnar]

Originally Posted by Darinae

Fortitude is equal to Voiddance for a monk.

Furious is equal to Whirlwind for a monk.

Anyway, the reason I like the /rsay first Gunnar is one, hopefully only one tank will try to step up (remember this is for emergencies, tank line up is down, etc), second healers should be watching /rsay, and HoTT, not just HoTT. The point is let the first couple people to get aggro die if you can hold a tank up, so the first couple on HoTT won't be the one being healed. It avoids two warriors stepping up and neither one getting heals (and the possibility of both blowing AE Taunt). /shrug It's just the way we do it. Fortitude/Furious won't always be up.

Oh we just broke into Qvic and killed Queen five days later. No one really geared beyond some Qvic and Time/Eles.

The need to delay and have people die is situational. Most of the time fortitude gives more than enough time for the chain to switch to you. If fortitude is down and the mob hits hard enough then i would call for heals first wait till they are inc then ae taunt. If fort is up that is not usually necessary. Tanks react to HOTT Dari. Before HOTT I would try to have the likely MT's in one group not only to see when they died, but, to see at a glance who was getting hit. If A warrior of suitable strength has aggro on the boss any war taking it from him is probably being a dipstick. So in the case of an AE T /Fort macro calling for heals first is not necessary and can confuse the fastest assist healers. The warriors should work together not be competing for aggro. Besides, I've always had an extra seperate "Heal Me" key and "Di Down" kinda stuff handy. I use my "Heal ME" key in addition to my switch macro to call for heals when i need them. Also, of course I usually confirm who is tanking by calling it in /rsay to dispel any doubts being rl.

Grats on Queen Dari I've always wanted to avoid the RSS mobs. With so much instanced progression content handy, I never liked the idea of going in and disrupting the groups there. Then before we knew it they were well behind our other targets hehe.

[Phantron]

I prefer to have someone not tanking or healing (and therefore not likely to die) to call out who's tanking next. If you let the tanks do it some of them end up crying wolf too many times with a 'heal me' macro and then the healers stop paying attention and then everyone dies.

[Gunnar]

Sure, what I say go's first. However, I may be dead zoning to the guild hall. Raidleader of course calls the shots, but, it's a team effort. We don't have the problems you describe Phant. However, I have seen people missed on heals all the time for not communicating their need. Whether it be offtanking, getting rampage whatever. Before I had a key and our guild was much less expereinced I died more often, after I started using a key I died less. There is no reason to misuse any of your tools. If you do you'll likely be a pain in the butt. It's just another available option.

[Brabble]

So, wait a minute now. I'm getting the feeling here that I'm the only one with a tank switch /rsay message that reads

/rsay I HAVE AGGRO ALL THE GOOD TANKS ARE DEAD DEAD DEAD CAMP NOW CAMP NOW FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CAMP NOW RAID WIPE IN APPROXIMATELY 12 SECONDS11111
/pause 4
/rsay This message will not be repeated.

[Gunnar]

Hehe, the heal chain just went blind!

[Darinae]

I don't recall one instance of misuse of such a hotkey. If it happens it's rare enough I don't notice it.

If you know how Gunnar types, you'd understand more what he says LOL. We're both on Stromm. I used to be in his guild. I know this about him. LOL.

Gunnar, on that hotkey, it also spams tank chat. So that the tanks know. We've had problems with tanks stealing aggro from each other. It's just a way to smooth it out. And, most of the time, it's not hugely needed because most of the time our tank line up stays up as it should lol.

On Queen we went through 5 tanks before enrage was done (no, not all at enrage), then went through all our rangers, and won with deftdance and 13 people standing. Yes, everyone using this hotkey on Queen would help or does help. Also mobs like Mindrider where the tank gets charmed and it's just chaos. In that case I'm unable to call out the next tank, cause I have no idea who's charmed, so we need them to call it.

But again the point is the Stepping up hotkey, even more so than the heal me hotkey. I find it keeps things running smoothly when there's chaos .. well it keeps the chaos organized.

[Ladas Sindarin]

As a ranger, I like it when the next warrior in line calls in RS that they have aggro, or are at least attempting to get it. There are plenty of other classes that have tools to assist in a tank transition should help be needed, who aren't always positive of what warrior should be next versus which one is next cause someone died, blew their disc, etc.

[Gunnar]

Originally Posted by Darinae

If you know how Gunnar types, you'd understand more what he says LOL. We're both on Stromm. I used to be in his guild. I know this about him. LOL.

Whatever do you mean Dari?

"MGO AHLE EM!" They understand... erm well hotkeys are safer for me

Aye, its a good idea for the tanks to get used to sliding aggro around and backing off when appropiate. It's so much easier these days with HOTT hehe. If an appropiate tank has aggro cause something blurped and the order is messed up the other tanks should automatically defer aggro in most cases. Sounds like it was a fun fight in RSS! Grats again $.

Usually, I'm the only one who knows all the tank discs that are active as I get the tanks to send me their disc stats before engagements so I can plan for targets and orders to come. Some events are kinda winged around the discs and I will call different tanks on the fly. Like on north snake between tanking rounds. Anything to avoid having to tank myself hehe

[BowdeenM]

Since I dont trust Macros, I tend to just use my hotkeys setup.

1) Fortitude
2) AE Taunt
3) Bazu
4) Cyclone (if Im allowed to, some raids you just cant.)
5) Click my Epic
6) Defensive and hope to god that Im getting heals.

All my discs are in their discipline window.. so its /cntrl 1 for Defensive, /cntrl 3 for Fortitude, /cntrl 7 for Cyclone Blade, and Bazu is in my hotkey bank (7)