PSA: How to Off-Tank in World of Darkness

As someone who loves OTing in WoD, I just wanted to point out the things that tanks can do besides be the MT. Now that I'm working on my BLM Zeta and have to queue as DPS, I've been finding more and more tanks in WoD who just fight over the MT position and ignore the rest of the fight. It's very irritating and slows down the raid. So, here are what the OTs could (should, in my opinion) do during each boss fight of WoD:


The first boss has a large number of instakill mechanics. If the boss turns, DPS and healers die very fast from Double Vision and Stare, especially if he completely flips to face the other way. The only times I've wiped here are when the tank died to an instakill turning the boss and half the raid was dead before another tank got around to both provoking and repositioning the boss. As a result, I feel like the "correct" way to deal with the boss is to have 2-3 tanks "MT" it. Stack tight on top of each other and get your aggro as high as you can. It's like fighting over aggro, except it isn't fighting because it doesn't matter who has the aggro, only that both of you are the two highest on the aggro chart. If one of the tanks dies, the other tank is top aggro and nothing changes. When the dead tank is revived, they can provoke the boss to get back to sharing the top aggro spot with the other tank in case another death occurs. I've never wiped this way, though I have pissed off other tanks who didn't know why I was "fighting them for aggro." Also, obviously (I hope...), if you're not the tank that currently has top aggro on the boss, pick up the adds. If you do that while still standing right in front of the boss stacked with the MT, your DPS can AoE them all at once easily.

During Five-Headed Dragon, there are a bunch of mechanics to take care of. A single OT can take care of nearly all of them by herself allowing DPS to focus on, well, DPSing. As a tank, an OT can grab the fire drakes and soak all three fireballs (especially PLDs, who can Stoneskin themselves after each fireball). (On a sidenote, there's nothing more annoying than grabbing a fire drake and, before the first fireball is even fired, having a DPS or healer run in, grab the tether, not pass it on, and die. Seriously, see a tank with the tether? Let them keep it :P) When the poison AoE drops, tanks are best suited for standing in the poison and keeping aggro on the slimes so they die close enough to grant the people standing in the poison the poison immunity. Without a tank there, many times a DPS across the map pulls the slime and the people in the poison don't get the poison immunity, soaking way more damage before the slime goes away. OTs can also watch for the purple lightning breath indicator and run in to help soak, popping CDs to minimize the damage caused by the split attack. PLDs can even Cover the target, pop Sentinel, and soak the whole thing on their own. Of course, this doesn't help when people run away from it, but still. I find dealing with these mechanics to be far more useful than the little DPS that a tank provides, though nothing stops you from DPSing between mechanics.

For Cerberus, it should be obvious what the OTs should be doing - tanking the Wolfsbanes. Just be careful when tanking 1-2 Wolfsbanes and picking up another - the Wolfsbanes have a push attack. They seem to love to use it when you are between them and the slobber, pushing you into the slobber and instakilling you. To prevent this, never let yourself stand directly between a Wolfsbane and the slobber (or, if you're a PLD, pop Tempered Will first). Don't fight over the Wolfsbanes. If you're the only tank going for the Wolfsbanes, by all means take all three. If the other OT is good and also trying to help tank the Wolfsbanes, split them up. If they get aggro on the first one, just wait for the second and grab it rather than trying to peel the first off of the other OT. (This should all go without saying, but in my experience, nearly every time the other OT actually goes for the Wolfsbanes, they go for the one I'm tanking and ignore the newly spawned ones. If this happens, just let them peel the first Wolfsbane off of you and focus on the next two.) Also, even if you want to only send a single group's worth of DPS inside, there's never a reason for a tank to go inside Cerberus. The Unknowns deal laughable damage and are not the threat. Stay outside and tank the Wolfsbanes - it is much more important.

For Cloud of Darkness, I feel that OTing is much the same as with Five Headed Dragon. Focus on mechanics and not DPS. You should have a sense by now of when Meteors come - when they're due, get to the other side of the arena far from the boss and get in a meteor circle asap when they spawn. If you wait too long to get into the middle of the circle, a DPS or healer will run there too and unnecessarily take the damage. When clouds start spawning, be ready for them and focus on slowing them down. When lurkers spawn, run around using your basic attack and OGCD attacks to interrupt them. That allows the DPS to spend more time burning the boss. And, be ready with LB - if the group is sub-ideal and lets Cloud of Darkness eat 3+ stacks worth of clouds, pop the LB when she speaks after the cloud phase.


During no part of WoD is a tank's DPS significant enough to speed up a fight noticably. However, during many parts, if the tank deals with mechanics, DPS can focus on DPSing. When tanks aren't dealing with these mechanics, it's not the bad DPS who deal with them. Usually, it's the good DPS who know what they're doing, and they generally can't DPS while dealing with the mechanics. Also, if tanks are soaking damage from mechanics like meteors, lightning breath, fire drakes, and poison puddles, DPS are less likely to die.


Also, during the first two trash fights, please pick up adds if you do not have aggro on the central enemy (Two Headed Dragon, Scylla, Xande). Then, take the adds to the middle so DPS can AoE the big enemy and the adds all at once. When dealing with the very first trash pull with the three Chimeras, pull them away from the healers and ranged DPS. Take them either to the center, or, better, the far right or left of the arena. Healers and ranged DPS will stack right at the entrance, and hitting them with constant paralysis (which has a much smaller range than caster spells/BRD attacks) really doesn't help clear it quickly.


/psa

You don't need to be attempting to steal aggro off of the main tank in order to ensure you're second on the list for Angra Mainyu. All you really need to ensure is that you build up well enough that you're reasonably above your allies and you'll be reasonably above all other healers/DPS as well. Beyond that though, staying stacked in place with the MT is foolish - you're eating a lot of extra damage that doesn't need to be eaten, and your healers will enjoy the opportunity to just Cleric Stance the fight more because this is one of those fights where other than super sparse adds and the MT it's entirely possible nobody takes damage.

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Originally Posted by Garlyle

You don't need to be attempting to steal aggro off of the main tank in order to ensure you're second on the list for Angra Mainyu. All you really need to ensure is that you build up well enough that you're reasonably above your allies and you'll be reasonably above all other healers/DPS as well. Beyond that though, staying stacked in place with the MT is foolish - you're eating a lot of extra damage that doesn't need to be eaten, and your healers will enjoy the opportunity to just Cleric Stance the fight more because this is one of those fights where other than super sparse adds and the MT it's entirely possible nobody takes damage.

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For a tank, Stare really doesn't do much damage, especially if you pop CDs occasionally even as OT. That's his only cleave. It doesn't add that much pressure to the healers. If you're standing on the boss's flank and the MT dies from an unhandled Doom, the boss will turn to face you before you can get in front. That's enough to cause some serious trouble for the healers if he Stares, hitting the DPS on the flank, or worse, immediately casts Double Vision after turning before turning back.

But, that's just my personal opinion. The important part is, as you said, staying second on the aggro chart.

Even when I had my nexus (currently have zeta), I had no problem making sure I was #2. My biggest problem was being confused why I was taking damage because I didn't notice Mt died while I was smacking the adds. My penta melded accessries really helped out with giving me more than a comfortable lead in sword oath.

Personally, I hate being tank in CT at all, because the entire thing is a hate fight. And it's frustrating to see a provoke go off every few seconds by a tank in il100 gear, si I stopped Mt and voluntarily OT everything in a CT raid

how 2 OT WoD:

- ignore everything except wolfsbane and ahriman
- dps everything else

that's it that's all you do

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

how 2 OT WoD:

- ignore everything except wolfsbane and ahriman
- dps everything else

that's it that's all you do

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Except I have taken hate off both war and pld by going all out on sword oath, thanks to penta melded 110, so even if "mt" is in a tank stance, I can still take off them, it's even easier now that I have zeta

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

Except I have taken hate off both war and pld by going all out on sword oath, thanks to penta melded 110, so even if "mt" is in a tank stance, I can still take off them, it's even easier now that I have zeta

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that's what mt gets for being undergeared vitbaby

Or ... tanks can just pay attention and learn how to provoke (which shouldn't even be needed because they should be #2 or 3 to begin with). There's no need for them to take unnecessary damage. Every single time I've seen Angra go on a rampage on DPS/healers was when the other two tanks were just blindly standing around in Shield Oath/no Defiance. If Angra has time to kill 5+ people and still not get picked up, the other tanks have done something very, very wrong.

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Originally Posted by aisustrong

that's what mt gets for being undergeared vitbaby

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A lot of them aren't undergeared, having similar or even more left side 130, and some even have a couple slaying. There's a reason penta melded is BiS.

I happen to prefer OT than MT, since you're doing much more than standing there and taking damage. However, I don't usually que for WoD as tank because I need gear for my alt jobs, and it has come to my attention that the majority of the tanks that do 24x raids are idiots who only want to measure their aggro epeens and have no interest of contributing to the success of the raid. While I understand what you are trying to say here, anyone who's going to fight over aggro on bosses has no interest in doing anything else.

Also off topic question; does DR skills really reduce damage taken from cover? I don't play PLD much.

I've yet to see even an Off-Tank take all three of the fireballs from the Firefly tethers and live.
I personally pass it to BRDs, or melee DPS, since the former can move freely and the latter almost always move as a natural result of combat anyway.

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Originally Posted by KikoriL

I've yet to see even an Off-Tank take all three of the fireballs from the Firefly tethers and live.
I personally pass it to BRDs, or melee DPS, since the former can move freely and the latter almost always move as a natural result of combat anyway.

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I regularly do as PLD using self-stoneskin. I also regularly do as BLM using Manaward (assuming I've been Stoneskined by a WHM beforehand, otherwise the third hit really hurts). It turns out that if you take 0 damage, you don't get a stack of the debuff. The debuff is what hurts - it both increases damage taken and reduces max hp. Generally though, I pass after the second fireball, or grab after the first, just because it's kinder to the healers to spread damage out.

I wonder if it's a data center thing (or only some servers) having multiple tanks fighting for MT'ing in the Towers?

I've been lucky enough that on my server (in all the times going through DF, etc.), that B Alliance is always default the MT. On stuff like Cerberus, A Alliance always gets eaten, C Alliance always tanks Wolfsbanes and handles Chaining Cerberus back up.

It was that way from Crystal Tower 1 and on (B Alliance always MT'ing).

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Originally Posted by Kiara

I wonder if it's a data center thing (or only some servers) having multiple tanks fighting for MT'ing in the Towers?

I've been lucky enough that on my server (in all the times going through DF, etc.), that B Alliance is always default the MT. On stuff like Cerberus, A Alliance always gets eaten, C Alliance always tanks Wolfsbanes and handles Chaining Cerberus back up.

It was that way from Crystal Tower 1 and on (B Alliance always MT'ing).

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Every run of wod, minus 1 or 2, nobody wants to mt. There's just something about aether, or just what I've participated in recently, that's made us want to stop taking charge in there. Could be that everyone is tired if the hate fight and all tanks I run with are welcoming that OT roll.

Depending on how the earlier pulls go, I'll tell the tanks just to take the stance off for Cloud, because I'll taker her anyways, and let me mt, and that's usually because I've consistently taken hate, or close enough I had to stop, that if I went all out, I would take hate and tank anyways, tank stance or not

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Originally Posted by Kiara

I wonder if it's a data center thing (or only some servers) having multiple tanks fighting for MT'ing in the Towers?

I've been lucky enough that on my server (in all the times going through DF, etc.), that B Alliance is always default the MT. On stuff like Cerberus, A Alliance always gets eaten, C Alliance always tanks Wolfsbanes and handles Chaining Cerberus back up.

It was that way from Crystal Tower 1 and on (B Alliance always MT'ing).

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I forget - is your server in a JP datacenter? I've heard that's the way things are done on JP datacenters. From everything I've heard, JP players play very differently from NA players, likely due to cultural differences. JP culture is very focused on the group and the wellbeing of the group, so people tend to work hard at their role in that group. NA culture (well, US culture) is very focused on the individual and individual achievement, so people tend to work hard to be noticed and stand out from the group. The MT role is the most visible, so it's no wonder that people often fight over it.

I wonder if JP datacenters have a problem with trolls in the Towers the way NA does - people burning Bone Dragon in CT and laughing when the party wipes, people bringing fire orbs to puddles in Scylla to destroy them (or ice to puddles to freeze multiple people), people grabbing the chains on Cerberus and just holding onto them, people dancing on and off the platform in CT Atomos, people spamming the teleporter in any of the three from the very start until it activates (which spams everyone's screen and chat log) even in WoD where the first fight is before the first teleporter, and so on. Going by my theory above, NA players do it to get attention, because the culture is focused on standing out, not just standing out in a positive way.

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

Except I have taken hate off both war and pld by going all out on sword oath, thanks to penta melded 110, so even if "mt" is in a tank stance, I can still take off them, it's even easier now that I have zeta

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Yep. I have the exact same problem ever since I went to penta-melded i110 accessories. This is why I prefer WAR for OT duty even though I'm a PLD main. All PLD has is the RoH combo, but WAR can spam their Maim combo to their heart's content. If I manage to pull hate off of the main tank when I'm out of Defiance and using SP/SE, I'm not really sure what to say except that the MT must be seriously undergeared.

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

Every run of wod, minus 1 or 2, nobody wants to mt. There's just something about aether, or just what I've participated in recently, that's made us want to stop taking charge in there. Could be that everyone is tired if the hate fight and all tanks I run with are welcoming that OT roll.

Depending on how the earlier pulls go, I'll tell the tanks just to take the stance off for Cloud, because I'll taker her anyways, and let me mt, and that's usually because I've consistently taken hate, or close enough I had to stop, that if I went all out, I would take hate and tank anyways, tank stance or not

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I'm tired of the hate fight after the previous two 24 man raids. I seriously gave up on MT'ing them; I just let the baddies that are gonna fight me for aggro anyway have it, and I DPS and do the clean up work with adds. I'm that kind of tank that grabs all six ninjas in the first trash room and stacks them on the dragon, etc. I guess I just enjoy OT more than MT. MT is piss easy in this content anyway. "Hey you, stand here and get hit and don't move the boss around too much." OK, I'll establish hate then go grab a drink... >.>

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

I forget - is your server in a JP datacenter?

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Cactuar is on Aether with us.

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

Cactuar is on Aether with us.

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I was talking to the guy I quoted, who is on Masamune :P

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

snip

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But war dps gets pretty trashed without an occasional butchers block though. Pre-penta melded 110, I had the shiva slaying bracelet and the rest of it vitand broke 240 in tank stance, I'm just curious what I would do now, even outside defiance I could probably strip hate with a 115 wep.

As for my pld, I've broken 170 in shield oath with mostly 120, some 110. Recently, I had a crit RoH for 1014 in sword oath. My pld dps is getting pretty good

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Originally Posted by aisustrong

that's what mt gets for being undergeared vitbaby

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Just keep taking threat off them until they learn how to gear properly.

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Originally Posted by monochromicorn

But war dps gets pretty trashed without an occasional butchers block though. Pre-penta melded 110, I had the shiva slaying bracelet and the rest of it vitand broke 240 in tank stance, I'm just curious what I would do now, even outside defiance I could probably strip hate with a 115 wep.

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There's only a 30 potency difference between SP and BB, it won't cost you much DPS at all to not use BB. The only time I use BB as OT is when Berserk is up and Path isn't needed for the damage reduction.

HS -> Brutal Swing -> Maim -> IR + Berserk -> SE -> Fracture -> HS -> SS -> BB -> HS -> Maim -> Eye -> Fracture/HS

Usually won't pull hate as long as I hit 2.5s after their Tomahawk/Overpower/Shield Lob. After that I just alternate Path and Eye, reapplying Fracture as needed. Later on, after the MT has established threat, you can stop using SP and use BB instead. Has worked wonders in WoD, though if I'm worried about pulling threat I just skip BB altogether until next time Berserk is up, but that's rare.

Being on Cactuar too, I've noticed that nobody wants to tank on Aether as well. At least I know if I'm there, then one person will voluntarily MT. :P

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

I forget - is your server in a JP datacenter? I've heard that's the way things are done on JP datacenters. From everything I've heard, JP players play very differently from NA players, likely due to cultural differences. JP culture is very focused on the group and the wellbeing of the group, so people tend to work hard at their role in that group. NA culture (well, US culture) is very focused on the individual and individual achievement, so people tend to work hard to be noticed and stand out from the group. The MT role is the most visible, so it's no wonder that people often fight over it.

I wonder if JP datacenters have a problem with trolls in the Towers the way NA does - people burning Bone Dragon in CT and laughing when the party wipes, people bringing fire orbs to puddles in Scylla to destroy them (or ice to puddles to freeze multiple people), people grabbing the chains on Cerberus and just holding onto them, people dancing on and off the platform in CT Atomos, people spamming the teleporter in any of the three from the very start until it activates (which spams everyone's screen and chat log) even in WoD where the first fight is before the first teleporter, and so on. Going by my theory above, NA players do it to get attention, because the culture is focused on standing out, not just standing out in a positive way.

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Hi Nyalia,

Yes, we're on a JP datacenter. The things you describe above... omg! That sounds awful. :( I can only say I'm thankful we haven't run into that in our Tower runs. /comfort

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Originally Posted by Kiara

Yes, we're on a JP datacenter. The things you describe above... omg! That sounds awful. :( I can only say I'm thankful we haven't run into that in our Tower runs. /comfort

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Trolls like that aren't in every run, but when they are... x_x Anyway, my post was really about my datacenter (Aether), where either everyone wants to MT or (more often as others have said) most of the tanks want to be DPS and do the whole dungeon out of tank stance, ignoring adds and mechanics designed for tanks to take care of.

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

how 2 OT WoD:

- ignore everything except wolfsbane and ahriman
- dps everything else

that's it that's all you do

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Brevity is the soul of wit.--Shakespeare

You sir, have bested the OP. /salute

Edit: except you don't even really need tanks for the ahrimans.

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Originally Posted by Alistaire

Brevity is the soul of wit.--Shakespeare

You sir, have bested the OP. /salute

Edit: except you don't even really need tanks for the ahrimans.

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People like you two are exactly why I wrote this :P So sick of raids being wiped by people with that mentality... Sure, the raid doesn't wipe if the rest of the players aren't bad, but bad tanks are annoying.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

People like you two are exactly why I wrote this :P So sick of raids being wiped by people with that mentality... Sure, the raid doesn't wipe if the rest of the players aren't bad, but bad tanks are annoying.

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It's not being bad, that's all you have to do for pretty much the whole dungeon. Most mechanics are everyone else's responsibilities, there's very little for the OTs to do in most of the fights. Slimes die in like 5s, Ahriman die in like 5s, only thing that stays alive for 500 years are the Wolfsbane because the digestion mechanic happens at the same time. You literally don't even need the OTs for Cloud of Darkness. Anyone can take the fire drakes as long as they're passed, they don't do that much damage. You also had this weird idea of having 2-3 tanks stand in front of the first boss, which never should be a thing. There's like 4-6 meteor circles that appear in CoD, everyone who can get to them will get to them, so being the first there isn't really going to make much of a difference. You're also pseudo melee DPS for CoD so you standing away from the clouds and standing around can be pretty detrimental too, as opposed to a healer or ranged DPS who loses no damage/healing from standing in them. You don't really need to try so hard in WoD, just grab Ahriman/Wolfsbane, follow mechanics as everyone else has to, and DPS a bunch.

Doing work...as a tank?

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

People like you two are exactly why I wrote this :P So sick of raids being wiped by people with that mentality... Sure, the raid doesn't wipe if the rest of the players aren't bad, but bad tanks are annoying.

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If you have wipes it's not because of what I'm sayin. If you don't realize that idk what else to tell ya. And yes of course if a mt goes down you step up, that's another story and you're no longer in the "offtank" role. So do what I, or other people, are saying, while paying attention to things to pick up slack if mt goes down.

You're pretty pompous to come in here and "PSA" what's essentially a bad guide, and then tag me as "people like me" as if we're the problem, when most people in this thread are agreeing against you.

Don't you know that it's been a trend at least in Chaos Data center that you can go afk, chatting, watching porn or only god knows what those few players do in WoD run that they just get close to the boss, do a few hits, then just leaves it there.. So they pretend to hit the boss, while doing something else on that time, of course they'll get hit by every aoe, dead, while only give auto attack, getting raised to only do the same thing again and again.. Since i've been trying to get puff of darkness and the card, for every run from 24 players, there's gotta be at least 2 or 3 of this kind of players.. I assume that they just get really bored from not getting drops from the said raid.. And this occurs to tank, healers and dps.. Mostly dos but the ratio of dps is 15:6:3..

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Originally Posted by lvlagmarink

Don't you know that it's been a trend at least in Chaos Data center that you can go afk, chatting, watching porn or only god knows what those few players do in WoD run that they just get close to the boss, do a few hits, then just leaves it there.. So they pretend to hit the boss, while doing something else on that time, of course they'll get hit by every aoe, dead, while only give auto attack, getting raised to only do the same thing again and again.. Since i've been trying to get puff of darkness and the card, for every run from 24 players, there's gotta be at least 2 or 3 of this kind of players.. I assume that they just get really bored from not getting drops from the said raid.. And this occurs to tank, healers and dps.. Mostly dos but the ratio of dps is 15:6:3..

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True, but that's entirely a different issue. We're not talkin about afk tanks (or anyone) here, it's a matter of what offtanks that are actively playing should do. I've had someone that was clearly offtank tell me "I always leave defiance up" when I politely assumed they had forgotten to take it down. It's like they don't understand how provoke works and feel the need to cement themselves in 2nd place on the hate list fulltime. Which you don't. Which shouldn't even need to be said. And there's so very little even for the 2nd tank to do there let alone the third. 2 tanks is plenty for trash pulls and 1 for bosses, but you have to have 3 or df wouldn't quite work right.

And then someone posts a guide like this which is partly way off in left field and the rest is just completely unnecessary.

Most of the adds in WoD can be managed by a WHM anyway it's only during the Cerberus boss because the adds have a nasty poison attack combined with normal attacks it does a lot of damage to a squishy healer. Everything else gets stun locked and destroyed with Holy. Sometimes that's the better choice especially for the adds on the first boss 2-3 WHM's will stunlock them so they do nothing and they are dead before they even get a chance to move. If you are in a tight spot you have swiftcast/holy and fluid aura. 3 Tanks shouldn't be mad dogging the boss trying to take aggro but I've learn myself and seen a lot of other Healers make the same mistake of just standing there healing themselves pulling more aggro instead of actively trying to pull them into a nuke zone or stun locking them.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

The first boss...I feel like the "correct" way to deal with the boss is to have 2-3 tanks "MT" it.

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As a tank+healer main, I disagree. Any tank should have no problem (unless extremely badly geared) maintaining 2nd place enmity on this boss. Standing in front is a complete waste of healing resources. As healer, I've kept party-B tanks alive many times when B healers dropped. The true PSA here should be asking all WHMs to keep Regen running on the MT. That alone improves MT survivability by many times (unless there's no WHMs in the alliance).

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

pick up the adds. If you do that while still standing right in front of the boss stacked with the MT, your DPS can AoE them all at once easily.

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A tip on add positioning: do not stand in front of mobs another tank is tanking! When two tanks want to have DPS AOE both their targets, and one or both of their targets have cleave attacks, you should stack the mobs, not yourself, so that you, the mobs, and the MT form a right angle or bigger depending on the cleave area. Minimize the damage you sustain, while forming a safe spot for the melee DPS, that is what you should be doing.

I can't count the number of times tanks drag mobs together and face their cleaves in every direction possible, forcing healers to spam AOE heals because all the melee plus all the tanks are all getting cleaved left right and center. You want faster kills? Then you should not only position the mobs, but also face the mobs properly, so your WHMs are not wasting time healing the DPS, but contributing with their Holy spam.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

there's never a reason for a tank to go inside Cerberus. The Unknowns deal laughable damage and are not the threat. Stay outside and tank the Wolfsbanes - it is much more important.

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One tank can hold all the Unknowns and let DPS (and healer) burn the targets unhindered. It's a pain in the a** trying to cast spells with a mob whacking at you. And unless you have a DPS building enmity on the Unknowns, they're going to go for the healer. Someone is going to end up tanking them, it might as well be you, the tank, because...well...there's already another tank outside for the Wolfsbanes.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

If you wait too long to get into the middle of the circle, a DPS or healer will run there too and unnecessarily take the damage.

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Ranged DPS and healers are actually great for meteors because they can take the hit while still dealing damage to whatever needs killing. Especially when clouds and meteor overlap. As melee you are of more use chasing clouds with your full arsenal than shield lobbing at them waiting under a meteor.



But you have stressed one thing that seriously needed stressing: pick up adds! Gosh I can't count how many times I got tanks who think they are DPS and ignore the adds...


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Originally Posted by Nyalia

I've heard that's the way things are done on JP datacenters.

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JP server here and probably 99% of runs in all Crystal Tower raids will naturally have the B tank being MT, and A/C leader will mention what they do before the pull.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

I wonder if JP datacenters have a problem with trolls

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Haven't seen trolls, although Bone Dragon gets burned about 70% of the time anyways and you notice most of the experienced healers will be ready spamming AoE heals if skeletons are making their goals. Teleporter spam I've noticed once or twice out of a whole month perhaps.

I just go in with sword oath, if I have agro I tank, if I don't have agro then I grab adds...its pretty simple.

When I go into WoD I go in with the mind set that I will OT until the MT can't MT anymore. Otherwise I try to keep adds of from people and cover my healers. I am ilvl 111 with ATMA and when I have MT'ed in WoD I have had very little issues doing so. On a side note I never fight for aggro. If a tank rips it off from me...then I just switch to Sword Oath and assist. Also I don't consider myself some epeen freak when I go into WoD or anywhere else. I like to think I am a decent tank, and when under pressure work well. If it means not being the MT to ensure the run is smooth then meh.....I'll do it.