Originally Posted by
elyxthaxzus
Long time player returning recently. Here's a few solid general tanking tips that have helped me across many MMO's over the years
1) in addition to knowing your skills, also make sure you know where they are on your hotkeys. If you don't use hotkeys at this point, it would be beneficial to learn. It is a much faster and easier approach then skill clicking (though clicking works, it isn't as fast...there's actually some decent research on this out there as well). and don't switch them up too often...the last thing you want to do is have to look in a fervor for that one skill you need while an orc is pounding on your defenseless healer who just oom'ed. On a similar line, get used to using your mouse to turn with, not the keyboard. in the length of time it takes you to keyboard turn to face a mob that just aggroed your healer, your healer could easily die. turn with your mouse, initiate skills with your keys. Even if it feels weird at first, it is DEFINITELY WORTH IT. start early if you have to.
2) in addition to knowing your hotkeys, Know the visual queues that turbine has in place for your parry and block reactives. These are critical for tanking (as well as DPS), and so knowing the visual queues will save you from having to glance down at your skills every second to see if your reactive chains are open.
3) Situational Awareness. It's a term I've coined for all the general awareness skills a tank needs that a DPS or healer does not. DPS will usually not go past their main target in relation to being aware (some don't even get that far!), and the healers will often have 95% of their attention on health bars (what I call the "Healing Zone"). Unfortunately, that means that someone needs to pay attention to everything else that's going on. having quick(er) reactions is a big plus in this (which is why #1 is so important).
Here's a few ways to increase your Situational Awareness outside of a group. The reason I developed these for new tanks is its a frustrating experience to have to "learn" tanking skills under the pressure of being in the lead of a group for the first time. Much better to have those skills down, or at least comfortable with them, so you can deal with the more global challenge of group interaction and communication. It's VERY easy to "zone in" when tanking initially...it's the stree reaction under pressure. so you want to break that zoning habit as soon as possible by getting used to "zoning out" when your tanking mob. These steps can help a great deal. so onto those tips:
First off, practice panning your camera around while your fighting solo mobs. By default holding down the left click and moving your mouse can accomplish this without turning your guard (this is key...don't turn away from the mob hehe). Practice identifying other objects in the field of view as your doing this....while your fighting! Those objects should be anything from non combat visual details (pots, stones, etc), to possible roaming mobs. What your trying to accomplish here is to get used to using your skills while keeping track of whats going on. this can be tough at first, especially if your also breaking the habit of keyboard turning or skill clicking. but just like those items, it's a critical step in becoming a better tank.
next, do the same thing but pull in more then one mob (solo). This time also add in cycling through the mobs and alternating skill use. as an example, you may hit mob A with sting and ward, then click on mob B and hit it with shield blow and vexing blow, then on mob C you may hit it with sting and retaliate, then back to mob A, etc. the key here is to get used to one, dealing with multiple mobs...two, getting used to spreading out your threat skills as well as dealing with holding aggro on multiple mobs, and 3, getting used to doing all of this while SCANNING THE ENVIRONMENT. being able to identify all that stuff that's going on around you is key to being an effective tank.
Last step is to learn how to position multiple mobs while doing all of the above. so basically do the same thing you did in step two above, but now try to herd the mobs into a group. take a few steps back, and rotate as you step back so the mobs follow you and "cone in". this can be really helpful if you want to hit a group of mobs with something like traited vexing blow, or sweeping cut. both of those skills hit in a smaller arc in front of you. By pulling back, the mobs temporarily funnel in towards you in a perfect arrangement for those skills! great way of organizing and controlling mobs. I'll even do this with groups that I know have solid AoE DPS skills (like champs and RK's). use this process to gather the mobs up, and let them go to town! (saving your AoE taunt for this really helps as well). But either way, get used to controlling the mobs byt pacing them and directing them this way.
NOTE: outside of those awareness tips above, if your still having problems breaking the "Zone in" tendency, then apply a concept I learned in real life Close quarters combat training. KEEP YOUR EYES MOVING. do not let them just sit on one aspect of the screen. force your eyes to move from one target to the next. there is evidence through research that the eyes are physiologically linked to the brains activities...simply forcing them to move can actually get your brain engaged and working faster! so if your having problems zoneing in on the mob in front of you, force yoru eyes to look at your healer...or the mob pounding them...or look one at a time at all the mobs you are fighting. If it helps, you can temporarily reduce the graphical animations on the screen in your graphics tab so theres not so much "busy stuff" going on on the screen (sometimes with all the spell animations, it's tough to see whats going on).
Situational Awareness is probably one of the most critical concepts that a tank can learn. I can always tell a tank thats new based on their reactions to whats going on around them...especially with multiple mobs. I ran GB the other day on a new RK as healer...there wasn't one fight where i didn't have at least one mob on me. the champion was actually holding threat on most the mobs...and the guardian spent most his time slowly spinning in place (keyboard turner) and fighting one mob at a time..usually not the one the DPS were hitting. it was a difficult group, but there were many things the tank could have done better if he would have been aware of what was going on. but his lack of situational awareness meant he was alwasy one step behind. I felt for him actually....you really feel bad in those situations, because most tanks WANT to do a good job. but without understanding how to gain those skills, many often just get frustrated and gie up. Hope this helps.
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. Champs need to learn their Ebb skill so that they dump threat on you. Burglars use Provoke to dump threat on you. If they don't use these skills and keep dying, is that your fault? I think not! As you get closer to level cap the art of a great guard is to have the right build and skill rotation to allow his/her group members to go full on hot burn without the threat of being killed. ie The MT losing aggro. But always remember that it is EVERYONE's responsibilty to handle threat and NOT just yours.
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