10-03-2005, 06:52 PM
Darian,Oct 2 2005, 03:06 AM Wrote:Warriors:
In Molten Core, there are essentially a total of four possible roles you can play.
1) Main Tank. As a newbie, you'll almost certainly not be asked to fill this role, as the main tank is generally going to be either the best-geared or the most experienced (or both). If you are called on, however, your job is painfully simple: get aggro, hold aggro, avoid being feared, survive. Regardless of your spec, you should be in defensive stance and carrying a shield unless you're so ridiculously geared that healers have no trouble keeping you on your feet while 2H or dual-wielding. Sunder Armor and Revenge are your best friends, and you'll be mashing them every chance you get. Your job is not to pump DPS. Your job is to keep the mob's attention. Period. Sometimes you will be the puller; most times you won't. It's important for the main tank to understand and accept this, and to know when it's time to let someone else do the job.
2) Main Assist. Again, this role won't fall to you as a newbie, but you may be called on. Your choice of weapon, stance, and spec isn't that relevant (unless you're also serving as secondary tank); your job is simply to pick the target and call DPS. You generally want to call DPS on the target once 5 sunders have been landed by whoever's actually tanking the mob, except on boss mobs when the rules are completely different depending on the boss. Sometimes, there won't be an MA at all -- Onyxia, Magmadar, Geddon, Shazzrah, Golemagg are all good examples. Sometimes, the MA will just be the secondary tank (double giant pulls). Sometimes, we actually require TWO main assists for a fight (double firelord pulls). Adaptability is vital.
3) Secondary tanks. This encompasses a couple of different situations. One is the "kill one and move on to the next" battle plan, used on double giant pulls, Lucifron, Garr, Sulfuron, and Majordomo. For this role, it's important that you be able to take punishment, but we'll set a kill order for the mobs in question, cascading down from the best-geared tank. If you're not really well-geared up, there's still room for you at the lower end of the chain on the mobs which will die first. The second situation is the "keep 'em busy" role. This applies to both the core hound packs in MC, and being in a whelp group on an Onyxia run; you just want to hold aggro while AoE burns relatively benign mobs down.
4) None of the above. One of the most difficult roles for a tank in raiding situations is to not have an assigned role at all, or to have a very limited role where you're the fifth offtank on the core hound packs or your target is the first kill target on a Garr attempt. A lot of tanks have asked me in these situations what they should be doing. Basically... you're just DPS. Stay out of the fight until the DPS call, then come unload.
The skills you use are going to be directly related to your role. Sunder, Revenge, Taunt if you're tanking (and Challenging Shout if you're the assigned warrior in an Onyxian whelp group -- you won't have a lot of use for it in MC). Your usual suite of DPS abilities if you're not tanking. Straightforward.
Gear... armor isn't important if you're not tanking. If you are, it is. One mistake you desperately need to avoid, however, is to build a single set of gear that leans heavily on one specific attribute. Some tanks were completely blown apart by putting together +def builds only to see Blizzard nerf +def, for example. In addition, gear which is heavily loaded toward one attribute is, by necessity, deficient in all others. The best bet is to have your main gear be balanced. In your pocket, a set of FR gear is vital as well.
Being a tank on an Avarice raid -- so long as you're on board with the game plan and not being a divisive ass who doesn't want to follow instructions -- is in my opinion one of the funnest "jobs" in the game. It's all about teamwork (and that's the thing the Avarice tank corps takes the most pride in, being a TEAM that supports one another), being prepared to leap headlong into the breach when the guy in front of you falls in battle, and executing detailed plans of action under the command of the raid leader and/or main tank.
[right][snapback]90741[/snapback][/right]
Very nice summary, thanks D.