tanks not using cooldowns?

[FallenWings]

Well the point of defensive cooldowns is to prevent dropping to dangerous levels/death in the first place sooo... I'm not quite sure I follow that logic.

You're never wasting cooldowns unless you purposely didn't use one for a tankbuster or without anything attacking you, both of which requires a certain degree of mental deficiency to accomplish.

[rockint]

Well the point of defensive cooldowns is to prevent dropping to dangerous levels/death in the first place sooo... I'm not quite sure I follow that logic.

Using cooldowns during a low damage phase so the healer can DPS, and using cooldowns to counter a period of high damage are two different things. Using those cooldowns when your healer is getting behind because there's a lot of group damage is different from using them early.

[Jpec07]

Using cooldowns during a low damage phase so the healer can DPS, and using cooldowns to counter a period of high damage are two different things. Using those cooldowns when your healer is getting behind because there's a lot of group damage is different from using them early.

There is some truth to this, as I believe we have said. Using cooldowns when you know you're not going to be taking a lot of damage is a little silly.

However, if you are able to predict incoming damage, then you will maximize the effectiveness of your cooldowns by using them ahead of the incoming damage. With only a few exceptions, defensive cooldowns are meant to head off the damage you're taking. If you only use a cooldown after you have taken critical amounts of damage, then you have saved it for nothing.

Be intelligent with your cooldowns, yes, but first be proactive. Using Sentinel and Sheltron when you've already eaten an unmitigated tankbuster down to 10% of your HP is foolish, when you could have instead used them ahead of time and only been brought down to only 53% HP. This logic applies to white damage. You need to plan for when to use it, yes, but long duration cooldowns (e.g. Foresight, Awareness + Bulwark, Rampart, etc.) are designed to mitigate white damage, and make you require less healing. Saving long duration cooldowns when you are taking even moderate incoming damage (read: all bosses, the start of normal-sized trash pulls, etc.) is poor tanking.