08-29-2006, 05:16 PM
Quote:Gauging how much threat you NEED is difficult, because DPS classes will "test" their threshold on trash and scale their boss damage appropriately. Shake is an example of this... GG mentioned the hunters would scale back their damage so tehy wouldn't pull aggro... So the tank has little indication that he is not generating as much threat as another tank would. It's difficult to gauge how much extra DPS can be liberated by improving threat generation. In some fights it's zero, while in others it's significant.
It works hand in hand with things like the warlock complaints that they can't utilize their DPS because of aggro concerns. Warrior threat handling capability has been improved... so warlocks will be more able to utilize DPS. Also I see "good tanks" tougher to come by simply because of the parallel tasking you will have to do while tanking. As it is it's a cycle of shield block, heroic strike, and [insert global cooldown skill here]. The expansion will add a layer of complexity with the Shield Bash / Heroic Strike mechanic and the sunder / devastate mechanic.
Keep in mind that Horde will now have paladins and the godly Blessing of Salvation for 30% reduction of threat across the board which equates to 42% more damage that can be dealt without pulling aggro. That combined with all the recent threat reduction abilities that have been added (particularly for mages in their last review) as well as the new higher threat protection talents that will be added should greatly reduce this problem.