Of Tanking and WoD

[Ophie-Mio]

I'll start with Behemoth: Tanks having a "pissing contest" here doesn't make much sense -- all 6 tanks have some task assigned to them usually - It's a pretty simple fight, with clear responsibilities for all.

It doesn't, however, tanks wanna feel important so they wanna be in the light. They think that the tank that tanks KB is the head honcho and THE MAN! *fistpump*. So people still fight at times over him. From what I've observed though, I've still noticed tanks doing the towers. You never know what kind of dps you're gonna get in there and more often than not, on the datacenter I'm on, we have half of the alliance made up of people who are right at home in CT in terms of ilevel.

For Bone Dragon: This is the biggest encounter design error. There's 6 tanks, but really one is the MT, and then skeletons spawn in pairs at fixed HP%. If the DPS stops to kill the skeletons, then you have rarely more than 2 live skeletons up at a time.

If the higher ilevel DPS automatically switch to the skeletons, there's problems. A lot of them go balls to the wall on them before they are even pulled to the vaguely correct area, usually leading to two at the same spot or literally right where they spawned. :/

That's 3 tanks doing something, and 3 trying to help who end up screwing things up. The "pissing contest" here is due to every tank TRYING to be helpful.

It's time like this where I wish people allowed tanks to converse more or everyone had the same idea of what to do. When I run CT, I tend to ask my other tank what they wanna do more of. If they wanna try to MT more, I'm on adds the entire time. At that point, I'm gonna get myself over to a direct side corresponding to if I'm A/B/C and take those skeletons.

For Thanatos: Here we face a new problem: A boss that way too often is never picked off the "main tank" who is suddenly unable to interact with him. This is a fight where tanks are meant to provoke off each other and switch main tanking (so where those so called pissing-contest are actually the "proper" way to handle it).

From the runs I've done, I don't think this is a problem. The OT's keep busy with adds and Thanatos gets to have his individual fun. It's rare for us if more than the first two parties go invisible before he's being brought down. Normally, the issue I see is one of the tanks isn't geared enough compared to another tank or isn't as used to the fight. So they provoke Thanatos but then can't keep it.

Oh, I've never seen that done before, so I had no idea what happens if tanked on the side. I always tanked it right where it spawns, and that seemed to be ideal with the whole 4 quadrant and 1/2 red/blue floor thing anyway :P

This totally happened the other day! A dps pulled the boss and two tanks just went at like chihuahuas over who was gonna grab it. They blew through provokes one after another but nearly could seal the hate fast enough. Angra did the double floor thing early in that fight and it was in the corner, the focal point, so everyone freaked out. He did it back to back too. @.@

[Docent]

It's time like this where I wish people allowed tanks to converse more or everyone had the same idea of what to do. When I run CT, I tend to ask my other tank what they wanna do more of. If they wanna try to MT more, I'm on adds the entire time. At that point, I'm gonna get myself over to a direct side corresponding to if I'm A/B/C and take those skeletons.

My solution to all my LotA problems recently has been to queue as Marauder and just be a pseudo DPS. There's no need for 6 tanks, so I erase myself from most of the equation, and I still have provoke, vengeance and threat moves, if I ever need to save the day.

[Franchesca]

JP DF's way

A takes left
B takes center/MT
C takes right

If B is new or not well geared enough they can ask other tanks to MT

It's only logical. But then again, I've heard some ridiculous stories about tanks trying to out-aggro each other in CT, surely just a myth hopefully.

The composition just kind of sticked from the previous CT raids, but both do work well enough, I guess.

As someone from a NA Database. Whenever I go into WoD, I have this mindset that's how things would play out. However, people tend to mix it up and make things for themselves complicated. Not to mention there will always be asshole tanks that are out there to out-aggro someone. Once I gotten my tank chest piece, I did not want the burden of tanking there anymore.

[Mahri]

I like going the DPS-get-eaten strategy too. It CAN be disastrous, but it's quick when it works. It's good for the first attempt at least.

One time, though, I accidentally got mini'd while main-tanking. It didn't really cause many problems but it was completely hilarious.

[Synestr]

When tanking, I don't care either way which I do. Sometimes I do prefer to OT, so that way I know the adds situations will be handled. Too many times I have seen the OT's not perform duties correctly in those situations. So I let em tank. I grab adds. We all win.

[Kiara1]

It's only logical. But then again, I've heard some ridiculous stories about tanks trying to out-aggro each other in CT, surely just a myth hopefully.

oooh they do. My alt is a tank and isnt very high ilvl but I can still survive mt. Soo no one jumped in on first boss so I did. And it was fine until our warrior took hate from me. So I asked if he could remove defiance and got the answer "hmmmmmm no xd"
Later on Cerberus we went with ABC and I was gonna tank boss but he just provoked and took boss instead. I wish we could vote kick players from other groups because people trolling are just lonely people who wants to ruin others fun

[Mishini_Dracoto]

lol, I'm i120 or so, and a career WAR. I was tanking Second Coil before FCoB came out, and haven't really done any FCoB. that being said, when it comes to the Crysal Tower raid(s) I just assume I'm MT. Last night I was running Labrynth of the Ancients, and a couple times another tank came up, voked off of me, but didn't actually pull threat off me.

pro Tip for tanks: Use Provoke right before Rage of Halone/Butcher's Block. That will give you your best chance at sealing the deal on threat lock down. Don't voke, right before I use Butcher's Block lol.

Anyroad, I just typically assume I'm MT. If will run up, watch the map, make sure players are all in the arena (ready Checks are too slow) I'll take a pause to see if the other tanks are running in, but not a long one, before I just charge in myself. If somebody does pull threat and seem to want to MT, I turn Defiance off, make sure hey have full threat, and then wheel around to the side to avoid getting cleaved.

on primal (NA) I tpically see people using the Adds Belly Chains method on Cerb.

Picking your raid MT based on the party # you randomly get? eh, I guess it's a good enough method, but you can get i80 or lower tanks in LOTA, and I don't think it makes sense to let an i70/80PLD over an i120/i130 WAR. (I mean, we're talking about double the amount of HP. <3 SCH's lol)

^unless the i70/80 tank REALLY wants to, in which case, they can ask in /a, and I will be content to let them try. As long as the healers aren't pulling threat I have np dialing back.

[papichulo123]

well i usually tank and if im on b and c tank is undergeared i state in chat ill mt

[KitanaiKoneko]

...
^unless the i70/80 tank REALLY wants to, in which case, they can ask in /a, and I will be content to let them try. As long as the healers aren't pulling threat I have np dialing back.

Only problem is, an i70/80 tank is not going to hold hate against a well geared and capable dps.

Just like in WoD when one tank grabs the 3 garms on first trash and proceeds to lose 2 of them to me as I use fire II.

[Docent]

Anyroad, I just typically assume I'm MT. If will run up, watch the map, make sure players are all in the arena (ready Checks are too slow) I'll take a pause to see if the other tanks are running in, but not a long one, before I just charge in myself.

I'm the same. I don't give very long for other tanks to "volunteer" as tanks -- If everyone is past the zone line before a pull, I'll let my healer know and charge ahead. Most of the time I'll default to main tanking the whole place, despite how much I hate tanking Cloud of Darkness and Cerberus.
Because of this, I tend to ask people for the "all dps in" method, because I'll me main tanking no matter which alliance I'm thrown in, and won't get myself mini'd and eaten in such cases.

If somebody does pull threat and seem to want to MT, I turn Defiance off, make sure hey have full threat, and then wheel around to the side to avoid getting cleaved.

That's where you and I differ. Personally, I'll see it and take it as a challenge. When that happens, I'll usually have a threat-battle with 'em.
If someone asked me why I do this, I wouldn't really know the answer. By thinking about it for a second, I suppose it's because another tank is probably the only thing that can provide challenging enmity to benchmark against, so it's making me naturally try and see if I can match/beat it, despite the risk involved (spinning the boss, getting us or others cleaved, etc.)