As the saying goes, /salute

[radhazg]

Hey everybody, been watching the site for a bit now and after finally deciding to go the route of the tank, here I am. I am somewhat ashamed to say that I have a 60 pally for wow, though I played him fromt the ground up to be a tank. Sadly I recieved a rude wakeup after hitting 60 as to what I was really for, thus my dream of tanking came to an end. This being the case, I have some moderate experiance in tanking for small groups, but never any large raids (obviously).

So, to pose a question, what would those of you with experiance in the roll say is the most important skills to develop as a tank, small or large groups? From the outset the tank "appears" to be a fairly simple job, find a mob, make it madder at you than anyone else, wash, rinse, repeat. Are there any other things we should watch for however in a general tanking scenario that might not be so obvious at first?

Thats about it, glad to meet you all, and I'll be around here somewhere.

[TheDrunkenDwarf]

Welcome to the forums.

Aside from agro control, there are other very important roles for a group's tank.

As the tank, it is your job to position the mob. That is a very important role that can get overlooked. You want it out of the way of possible adds and you generally want it facing away from the rest of your group (in previous games most defensive abilities don't help if the attacker is behind the target). In Vanguard, position is likely to be even more important because more attacks will be position dependent than in other games based on what we've seen so far.

Deciding which target to kill in multi-mob encounters is the job of the tank. He should call for offtanking or crowd control and direct the party on which mob to focus their fire upon.

You also need to understand when to use your defensive specials (especially if they are on long timers), so being cognizant of your healer's mana/ability is important. Not "getting deaded" is not just the healer's responsibility.

[Deadjester]

Not falling asleep on the run key in the middle of a pull is pretty important in my book, don't want to talk about how I know that.

The dorf has pretty much summed it up.

You can get away with alot of different pull styles from great to indifferent depending on your group and the mobs you are faceing.

Learning to watch for and adapt to your groups personal skill at playing their character's stands out the most in my book. One persons lack of ability at playing/knowing their character can break a group if you don't adapt you pull style to the groups make up.

Many a time a real good group can handle having a crazy puller for avg pulling but a good puller and possibly group may not live if the support characters arnt doing their jobs.

So keep your eye's open and pay attention to the people you are playing with and adapt your pull style accordingly.

Oh, and don't fall asleep during a major pull! :twisted:

Haruchai

[ellestil]

So you want to be a tank? Welcome to one of the busiest jobs in the game, but also, the most rewarding.

The Job:
The main role of a tank class is to
A. Keep hate on them
B. Take damage
C. Be the first to die and allow others to live. ( this isn't a job role per se, but an important attitude to have while doing A and B. Selfish players need not apply, a selfish tank is like a horse that bucks it's owner, unusable and not fit for it's job)

Secondary roles include
A. Assessing the combat encounter ( Doable or not ), and strategy to overcome them.
B. Pulling the mobs using various skills ( In situations where it's better to let the tank pull ). Those skills include using special abilities, a bow, or proximity pulls. Proximity pulls means you edge your character close enough to a mob to where he see's you then comes after you. This is sometimes more desirable over bow or ability pulling depending on the situation.
C. Controlling the mob by means of turning, stuning, taunting. When there is more than one mob, managing aggro to keep them all on you if possible, and if not possible, calling when a stun, root, mez or whatever is necessary and which mob to do it on. This also entails always anticipating potential adds, and watching out for roamer's.
D. Communication with group members as to what you will pull, what to kill first, whether to follow you or stay put, when to retreat or stay and fight, etc.

Other Aspects of the Job:
One of the key things that seperates a "good" tank from a "great" tank is knowledge. The more a tank knows about his enemies, the area, and the abilities of his group mates, the better he can do his job. Being the leader of the group in most cases, the tank is looked upon by members as making the decisions and knowing what to do. The more you do your research, the more people will be clamoring to group with you. Anyone can buy armor, anyone can hit the taunt button, anyone can swing a sword, but not everyone can lead a group through a challenging dungeon making intelligent decisions that ensures the groups success and gain great treasures with little to no debt.

The Gear:
As the tank your primary focus gear wise is armor that is up to date and helps you live longer or do your job better. Mages can get away with not having to upgrade a robe every few levels, but not tanks. The better your gear, the longer you live. The longer you live, the longer everyone else lives in your group. You don't have to be Uber, but you should strive to keep yourself up to date on gear. For raids, depending on the mob you are going after, you may need different types of gear for different mobs. Resistance plays a major role in raiding, as well as mitigation and hp's.

Raiding:
If you want to be the main tank for your guild, then you need to have great gear. But most of all, you need to have a knowledge of the mob you are going to face and the ability to communicate effectively to people in your raid party. Communication skills are key for raid leaders and most often as a Main tank, even if you aren't the designated raid leader, you still need to make important calls and communicate those decisions. You should also get into the habit of reviewing combat logs. These are key to informing you on what a mob uses in his attacks, and helps you come up with a plan to defeat him.

Tie it all together:
So in the end there is no one main thing that makes a good tank, it's mostly a desire to learn all aspects of the job, and a desire to do your best while helping others. Tanks do not gain glory from their solo accomplishments ( although some have done amazing things ). The glory you gain is from leading others successfully and consistantly getting the job done. Good luck to you in your adventures and may your deeds be well known 8) .

Ellestil

[radhazg]

Whew! Thanks much for all the info guys, ellestil wow that was really well put together. After reading all these suggestions most of them seem common sense once I think about it. In fact alot of it I was doing already, although going through the damage logs is going to be a bit tough for me, I have a habit of ignoring it unless something interesting happens (like a bit hit) but then I havn't really needed to. (53 BL in eq and 'lock in wow as new main) even way back in the day on the pally (over a year ago) I didn't look at it all that much. But in the end this is something I've always wanted to do and I can't wait to get started!

[LadySirse]

Closing this thread. You can find it here.