Advice for DPS
Namthe from The View from Down Here has posted a very interesting series of articles in his blog, namely what DPS can do to work better with your friendly warrior tank. Splendid idea! He’s offered information for hunters, mages and rogues so far. I agree with all the points he makes, but will try to follow his series and add stuff he didn’t cover but which I find apply as well.
Hunters: On Traps – If you don’t wear 2 pieces of the Beastmaster set, please let me know, so that you can put your first trap down well before I pull. I will try to get your mob as soon as I have handled what I need to tank first, and it helps me with determining the kill order if I know if trap cooldowns are a concern.
Pets – I know your pet has probably successfully off-tanked in most normal 5-mans and you’re used to it working, but just don’t do it in heroics. It’s not going to work. Even if you keep Mend Pet up non-stop, most heroic trash mobs will just tear through your pet. Let me tank, a trap will be more use here than still considering your pet an off-tank.
Misdirect – If you’re supposed to misdirect onto the tank, especially if it’s in a fight with aggro resets (like Nightbane), make sure that MD is on when it’s needed, but don’t use it too early. MD on the tank 20 seconds before Nightbane lands won’t help anyone. Also, once MD is applied, shoot that dang mob so I actually get the benefit of MD.
Mages: Polymorph – Polymorph as early as you can. I just switched to a fast throwing weapon (blame Veneretio) so you won’t have much warning time from me, but still try to polymorph as early as you can. On the other hand, don’t sheep before I have pulled. Sheep-pulls are really bad form. They also mean that the whole group of mobs will aggro on the puller, and mages are squishy. You don’t want to waste your Ice Block that early, do you?
Rogues: This one’s tricky, because I currently play a rogue as main alt, and patently do the things that I hate other rogues do when I tank. Bad habits die hard!
Stuns - An absolute no-no in normal 5-mans. You might be used to your Cheap Shot – Kidney Shot combos, but to me they mean rage starvation. Slice’n'Dice and Rupture and leave them all angrily beating on me without stuns. In heroics, it depends on the situation. In one of those pulls with two non-CCable heavy-hitters like the Coilfang Defenders or the Sethekk Ravenguards, stun away. Rage is no concern here as they hit so hard, stuns really help here. When in doubt, check with your tank.
I’ll try to post additions when Namthe has posted, my thanks to him for this splendid idea.
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Thanks for the kind words!
Funnily enough, I was dragged into running a heroic with my rogue last night shortly after writing the rogue article (first time I’d played him in six months or so). It was amazing how bad I too was at following my own advice
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admin Reply:
July 7th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
@Namthe – Yeah, I feel you. I always have “Doh!” moments when I play my rogue and my twitchy fingers hit Kidney Shot, just because I am used to it. I always mock one of my favorite rogues she should play a tank because her reflex is to tank a mob instead of having it go on a healer, and now I can see why.
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