Let's share some Tanking Tips and Tricks!

[NarcissitInChains]

My experience with the aggro issue aside form the formulas and such is mostly group etiquette more than anything the lack of awareness on the dps's part. The threat icons are pretty straight forward. I posted this in another forum and these few macros greatly improved my experience in groups that I am forced to pug with.

There are always those who don't know how to conduct themselves in a group and this game is no different. So this first macro is the grouping 101 warning. I found that this combined with my "You f*ing idiot" macro have greatly improved pugging etiquette.

Method to my madness: I mark the target I pull and blast it for good aggro then flash and cycle through the rest of the mobs to build the aggro so that when mob 1 dies everyone can go ape shit. It's worked rather well for me thus far in my short 22 levels of playing a tank

SOCIAL MACROS

This is How I roll in Group - Macro 1

/party There is a threat indicator learn to use it and heed it. The targets will be marked with a 1. If you pull aggro on an unmarked mob and are not a healer, you will tank it and likely die. I don't care nor will I loose sleep over your stupidity. TY!

F*ing Idiot - Macro 2
Of course there is always the numbskull who despite my polite intro warning decides he wants to dps the mob that is usually lowest on my threat sequence. the <t> is totally optional but me personally if your that dumb I'll call you out on it. He gets this macro:

/party Congratulations you are a moron <t>. Hit the marked mobs or enjoy the run back.

MY TANKING MACROS

Pull Macro I bind this to my mouse button.

/ac "Fight or Flight" <me>
/ac "Fast Blade" <t>
/ac "Shield Lob" <t>

Mark Marcro - should have one and mine has some announcement along the lines of "Hit the BIG 1 while I grab aggro on the others." I just used the macro already built in and added the chatter.

Defensive Cool Down Macro
As I leveled I added the cool downs into the macro as I got the cross abilities. I got PUG 8, MRD 4, LNC 6 (I believe) to get all the Def CDs. Don't quote the levels but they are all under 10 to get. When I was done this is the macro I end up with.

/ac “Rampart” <me>
/ac “Foresight” <me>
/ac “Keen Flurry” <me>
/ac “Featherfoot” <me>
/ac “Second Wind” <me>
/ac “Convalescence <me>


My Keybinds:
Mouse:
I have a WoW mouse with 4 additional buttons. This game does not recognize 2 of them which makes me a sad panda. If anyone has figured that out please let me know.

Scroll is default auto run
M3 move backwards
M4 my Pull Macro

I set up move backwards on my mouse because I like to move out of shit and as a tank I try to minimize the shit my group will deal with. Since the easiest and shortest route out of POOP is move through the mob then after the ability is cast I simply move backwards. I find this technique is easy and especially for the melee classes limits a ton of movement making their dps output more efficient. It allows for your position to be optimal to limit damage to your group in low movement fights.

Keyboard:

A = Fast Blade
S = Savage Blade
D = Riot Blade
E = Defensive CD Macro
R = Flash
T = Shield Bash

At level 22 this is what my set up is. Hope that helps, and if not, it helped me kill some time at work!

[Cyrus-Wallace]

Snip

Sweet! I've been looking for useful macros and you gave me nice ideas.

I can only give you a list of things I realized while tanking and posted on my previous thread.

-Use of buffs: If there's a tough monster or a big group of monsters (3+/4+, normally) Convalescence and Rampart are a must. You help your healer because he/she's not healing you constantly, and he/she can save her/his precious MP.
-Use of other skills: Shield Bash helps me interrupt the monster's cast. If they proyect a threat area that I can't escape... that skill saves my life.
-Use of common sense: If you see the monster uses cone/straight AoE attacks, don't let the monster face your party. Go behind them so the evil dude is showing his back to your party members. Also, you help Puglists and Lancers to increase their overall DPS.
-Use of foods: Skill speed bonus + Vitality are a must for me. The global cooldown sometimes is a pain.