AOE tanking and Taunt question (Warrior)

[LiquidOuroboros]

Hey guys. I have 2 questions. First, should getting Gladiator to 22 be my first priority atm for provoking blade? I dont have any taunts and this is the only one atm? There are no AOE taunts?

As for AOE tanking I mostly pull with tomahawk on another target than the main target and use flash, I then use HS+SS on the main target and then tab to the nearest other creature to use butchersblock. Flash again and use stun with HS on the third, SS on the main target and another BB on one of the others. I then use Steel cyclone+infuriate+Steel Cyclone + flash again combo. At this point I dont lose aggro on anything.

Tanking one or two targets is easy, when I tank 3 or 4 if I lose aggro on one I immidiately use stun on the fleeing mob to get in a HS+SS on it.

However when offtanking CM the add spawns on bosses are usually a cluster *F* as they spawn all over the place. Any advice for tanking all adds in CM bosses? When 4 groups of 2 adds spawns on opposite sides of the room I feel its almost impossible to get them all. Are you supposed to even tank all or is grouping up and AOEing them the intended way to tank here?

Im also afraid of trying to tank Garuda HM because I dont have provoking blade yet, mandatory to tank it to keep the add + Garuda on you or will the DPS shift to add allow you to aggro the add without losing aggro on Garuda?

[SpookyGhost]

It's just Provoke, no blade involved since we can do it with an axe as well. Provoke is useful for when you're having aggro issues on single target enemies, but not useful against ADDs at all. There are rare occasions where a healer might pull threat on one enemy in the pack and you can provoke + Tomahawk them back, but other than that it's not doing much, especially in CM. For CM I'd recommend either communicating with the group to bring any adds they aggro to them so that you can OP/Flash them off or you can manually go around, flash, bring them to the next pack, overpower, bring them to the next pack, overpower, then just keep overpowering til you're ready to cycle through with HS>SS>BB2nd>etc. Main tanking Garuda as WAR can be annoying due to the phase w/ Red ADD but it's doable as long as your healers are competent and you can manage your self heals properly. If you don't NEED to MT her, just OT her. Hold aggro on the Red, kill all the feathers, kill the purple feather, gg.

But yeah, Provoke is worth getting, but you don't really need it for CM.

[Sapphidia]

Provoke is pretty much 100% mandatory for offtanking on Garuda hard. The adds spawn a fair way away and healers will build up a lot of threat as they move towards the group. You can get away without it as the main tank, but you're adding a huge amount of difficulty to your role without it as an OT, to the point of it being flat out impossible to do your OT job properly without it if you get trigger happy healers.

Although it's an opinionated view, I believe Provoke to be 100% mandatory for ANY 50 content. It's fine for levelling without it, but the benefits of Provoke are too good to skip:

- You can do Tank Swaps on any encounter that needs them.
- If you die and get Raised midfight, Provoke will put you back at the top of the aggro.
- Healer threat in 8mans is much higher than 4mans, Provoke gives you a safety cushion.
- You can actually pull mobs from much farther away than using Tomahawk. Useful for split pulls in speed runs.

As you have warrior at 50 it's only 7 levels from the base 15 to get it. Honestly I'd make getting Provoke your absolute priority now. Sure, in a lot of encounters you wont need it, and I'm sure people will say "well I tanked encounter X and never needed it" which will be fine. But your job as a tank is to ensure the safety of your group when things go smoothly and when things go badly, and Provoke is the most impactful cross class skill you can take.

White Mages/Scholars are often forbidden to raid if they don't have 26 Thaum for Swiftcast, even though it's situational. Warriors should be the same with Provoke.

[Warlyx]

"tank what u can grab" in castrum , adds dont hit that hard, if u lose 1 or 2 meh , 1 dps can tank 1 add easy even 2 because the use aoe and u have time to burn them down.

try to be ready to take adds as soon as spawn, in the 1 boss is easy , go where to 1 of the sides overpower adds while running to the party , the other adds are going for your healers .

2nd boss , tank it on the door , let adds come and aoe down, try to grab as many as u can ,but dont follow if 1 goes for a dps

3 boss , as soon as add pops go for them and aoe down , 2nd /3rh wave is harder but try to aoe aoe aoe , remember that last wave come with a huge robot , grab that 1 first

last boss if u arent tanking ,u are a dps until last wave (another robot add)

p.d try to get provoke yeah its usefull , for getting agro back and for pulling succubus on AK :P

[LiquidOuroboros]

Thanks guys <3

[Sargon]

Provoke is a must. Some examples :
- main tank die in 8man, 2nd tank use provoke, and voila! : 1st on aggro meter
- main tank die in 4man, gets a raise while dd is kiting. The raised tank use provoke => win
- healer spamming heavy threat skills when an add pops, dd unleashing everything on a mob pull, etc... Provoke saves those situation.

It changed my life as a tank.

[Toranja]

For CM I'd recommend either communicating with the group to bring any adds they aggro to them so that you can OP/Flash them off or you can manually go around, flash, bring them to the next pack, overpower, bring them to the next pack, overpower, then just keep overpowering til you're ready to cycle through with HS>SS>BB2nd>etc. Main tanking Garuda as WAR can be annoying due to the phase w/ Red ADD but it's doable as long as your healers are competent and you can manage your self heals properly. If you don't NEED to MT her, just OT her. Hold aggro on the Red, kill all the feathers, kill the purple feather, gg.

Word.

For Garuda, if they were to give me a few seconds to aggro it before spamming Medica, everything would run a lot smoother. I still manage ok though.

[Terabyt3]

As war why are you not using overpower?

When you tomahawk a group theyll all run towards you. Overpower once (or twice for good measure or OP then flash) will get hate on them no problem.

Since they should all be infront of you anyway (for parry) the front cone on overpower isnt hard to set up.

Provoke is most useful in BC. It's not needed for garuda but a lot of people use it in the adds phase. Holmgang works just as well when the add travels by you. I use auto face function on abilities. When add glides near me I holmganag i then have 6 secs to build hate on red line with her unable to even hit anything due to facing away. usually by the time she turns around green line is down and I have more than enough hate.

[Kitru]

- main tank die in 8man, 2nd tank use provoke, and voila! : 1st on aggro meter
- main tank die in 4man, gets a raise while dd is kiting. The raised tank use provoke => win

These are the only situations where Provoke is really particularly useful and they're both predicated upon a tank death that isn't immediately or soon followed by a wipe (or the OT simply taking over MT duties).

- healer spamming heavy threat skills when an add pops, dd unleashing everything on a mob pull, etc... Provoke saves those situation.

Unless you've been ignoring that add for the last 10 seconds, Provoke is going to be less useful than simply dropping a BB/Halone on the target. Provoke doesn't give an enmity cushion so it's only useful when you're so enmity outstripped that you have no chance of recovering within a reasonable time normally, which, unless you've been ignoring said add for an extended period of time or you've got a WHM spamming Medica II for no good reason, you're not going to be.

[Ehayte]

Unless you've been ignoring that add for the last 10 seconds, Provoke is going to be less useful than simply dropping a BB/Halone on the target.

For 8 man raids with trivial clearing, yes.

But in dungeons, even 5 seconds is LONG time in this game. It is enough time to build easily more hate than a RoH/BB will get you (even if you have it combo queued up) and that same amount of time could easily put a devastating amount of hurt into any DPS/Healing class. I use a provoke/cover hot-key all the time in dungeons, including CM. I will even sometimes intentionally let my enmity lapse on a target that is getting AE'ed while I build a huge cushion on my main target, then as soon as it breaks off from me, Provoke + Shield Lob + RoH, and now I have everything neatly under control once again, without having to have run around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Provoke is very useful.