Just a quick guide for our tanks, and people who may want to dual spec into tanking.
I notice a few of our tanks use Taunt (Growl, Hand of Reckoning, or Dark Command) for initial threat generation at the beginning of a pull. Challenging Shout, Challenging Roar, Righteous Defense, and Death Grip will be partially discussed as well.
First off, a quickie on threat and how it works. If you have aggro on a mob, it takes 110% of that threat for a person in melee range to pull aggro off you. It takes 130% of that threat for a person beyond melee range to pull aggro off you. I didn't mention specific classes because it doesn't make a difference. A mage at melee range will pull aggro at 110% threat.
Taunt does not generate any threat. The mechanics of taunt abilities have been the same since Vanilla. Taunt commands the target to attack you for 5 seconds. What it does behind the scenes hasn't changed either. When you use Taunt, in addition to the 5 seconds of aggro, your threat is set to the same level as the player who currently has aggro, and you also become the person at the top of the threat list for that mob for 5 seconds. So if you have aggro and taunt, you basically just did nothing. If you did taunt a mob and are not generating enough threat on it, you will lose aggro after 5 seconds.
Why is this important? I mentioned that I've seen some of our tanks use taunt for initial aggro, maybe at the beginning of a pull, after a threat wipe, or when adds spawn in the middle of a fight. It is unnecessary to do so for a few reasons. First, upon initial aggro, you have 0 threat if you haven't done anything to the mob, so taunting him just makes him attack you for 5 seconds. Why this is a problem is that DPS classes usually see the taunt and automatically think they can unload on the boss. If you haven't generated enough threat in those 5 seconds, you will immediately lose aggro. It's better to get into the habit of front-loading threat abilities instead of taunting. Plus you're able to save the cooldown in case something does happen.
This applies to aoe taunts as well, and includes righteous defense.
An example I have is when Boyd and I tanked the Emalon encounter. I was on Emalon, and Boyd tanked the adds. I'm not criticizing your tanking in any way either, so please don't take offense.
So the pulls went like this:
1. Boyd runs in, I follow a few yards behind.
2. Boyd gains initial aggro on all 5 mobs.
3. I cast Exorcism on Emalon, and I gain his aggro.
4. Boyd uses Thunderclap on all 5 mobs. I don't lose aggro on Emalon, but both of us are running to our respective corners, so I'm gaining distance from the entire pack, with Emalon closing in on me.
5. Boyd uses Challenging Shout on all 5 mobs. The result of this is that Boyd now has aggro on Emalon as well as the 4 adds. The problem with this is that Emalon turns around and high tails it for Boyd while I'm still running towards my corner. Not only do I not have aggro now, I'm too far to reach Emalon to taunt him back. So I need to run back towards Boyd and taunt Emalon back.
The reason why it was unnecessary for him to use Challenging Shout is that he already had aggro on all of the adds. So using the shout not only made me lose Emalon, it had absolutely no effect on the threat he had on the adds. Additionally, initial threat on the adds is less important because they are not DPS targets at the beginning of the fight. Emalon is the initally DPS target, so having his threat chart all screwy may complicate things. In the end, we still killed him, but there is always room to streamline encounters.
For Paladins, Hand of Reckoning should be your new taunt. Righteous Defense can and will cause problems if you are off tanking and trying to taunt adds that are standing near a boss that someone else is tanking. I've seen this on fights like Sartharion.
For Death Knights, Death Grip is not a true taunt. It does give you aggro for 3 seconds, but it does not set your threat equal to the person who had the highest threat. So if you Death Grip a boss that you were off tanking and had little threat on, it is more than likely you will lose aggro after 3 seconds unless you can place yourself on top of the threat list. The way you can use this skill aside from PvP is mainly for DPS death knights to save healers or other DPSers from certain death. Use Death Grip to pull the mob away, then use Chains of Ice to root it. Hopefully, this gives the healer or DPSer enough time to shift to a better position, as well as allowing the tank to taunt the mob back.
Excellent post, Dave.
I'd like to reiterate a point for the DPS players reading this post: taunts and Death Grips are not a permanent TPS boost on the mob. This means you must allow tanks a moment to get past the initial spike and generate actual threat.
Thanks for the good post Charlie Dave. I think I'm gonna change my bar and put Exorcism right next no my Shield and Hand of Reckoning when I tank now.
-Mark
so to clarify, when i see a taunt, dont use my 25k conflag crit
Also, if you are a healer, don't holy shock a mob and expect to survive. Just a pro tip.
-Mark
Psh, I think I proved to everyone in that Old Kingdom run that Shockadin is the win.
Knowing when to taunt off another tank is a crucial element in raid tanking. As Shizuru pointed out, a taunt is a momentary shift of aggro, and not a permanent boost to threat and TPS. That makes knowing when to taunt an important skill.
The most obvious time to taunt is during boss fights that require handoff (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=15932). The fights require both tanks generating high amounts of threat so the issue with threat bouncing to a DPS is minimized. The taunts are also coordinated ensuring a event-free transfer of hate.
On trash mobs, knowing when to taunt is more difficult. It is likely that a DPS character is in second place in threat on a trash mob so a taunt requires immediate application of threat-generating abilities. Time it wrong, and a heal or a critical strike will peel the threat off you and cause the mob to run rampant among the rest of the raid.
So, if there is a chance of Mobs Gone Wild, why and when do you taunt trash?
- A lot of raid fights involve multiple mobs of staggered health. If kill order is such that one tank's mobs are all killed, and the other tank is getting a punishing beatdown, a taunt to split the adds and the healing may be the answer.
- Some mobs are better tanked by different classes. For example, a spellcaster is best tanked by a Death Knight. Taunting to get the hate, and then judicious use of Mind Freeze, Silence, or even Death Grip may speed the fight.
- Positioning can be altered by throwbacks and terrain. Mobs that should not be tanked facing the raid at all costs may need to be picked up by the other tank to avoid massive damage to the raid.