06-19-2007, 10:27 PM
The thing to look for on a raid tank in my opinion, specifically to learning runs, is effective health. Effective health is the amount of damage a tank can take before he dies with no heals. The two things that determine that value are your total health pool and the amount of mitigation you have (whether by armor/block value for physical or resistance for magical).
On a fight such as Gruul, you are correct in inferring that overheal is likely to occur at some point (dodge, dodge, dodge) as at a certain point of Growths & health of the MT, if he doesn't receive a heal within two seconds of receiving damage, the tank is going to die. Thus the healers have to rain heals on the MT (and OT for that matter) whether or not the damage is received. A canceled heal with .6s left on casting might just result in a wipe, thus it is going to land irregardless of current tank health. I would have him in as much health & armor as possible while keeping the critcap as he can. That's the advice I follow and practice for myself and recommend to anyone tanking these level of encounters.
As a segue, it appears at some point avoidance becomes more important than effective health, judging by the gearing of Mt. Hyjal tanks. I haven't had the opportunity to ask one when & why, or done any research on the encounters, so I couldn't say what changes but at least for Gruul's Lair up through SSC/TK there seems to have been an effective health tank gearing that has lead to success.
Regards,
~Frag B)
On a fight such as Gruul, you are correct in inferring that overheal is likely to occur at some point (dodge, dodge, dodge) as at a certain point of Growths & health of the MT, if he doesn't receive a heal within two seconds of receiving damage, the tank is going to die. Thus the healers have to rain heals on the MT (and OT for that matter) whether or not the damage is received. A canceled heal with .6s left on casting might just result in a wipe, thus it is going to land irregardless of current tank health. I would have him in as much health & armor as possible while keeping the critcap as he can. That's the advice I follow and practice for myself and recommend to anyone tanking these level of encounters.
As a segue, it appears at some point avoidance becomes more important than effective health, judging by the gearing of Mt. Hyjal tanks. I haven't had the opportunity to ask one when & why, or done any research on the encounters, so I couldn't say what changes but at least for Gruul's Lair up through SSC/TK there seems to have been an effective health tank gearing that has lead to success.
Regards,
~Frag B)
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.