Tanking Too Much Part 2: Trash

When I'm working with other tanks on trash packs, we tend to move in a little pack. We zero in on the next pull and lump it together for the AoE damage, and we tank whatever mobs we can secure out of that group, even stacking threat on each others' mobs. The DPS, meanwhile, damages the hell outta the mobs, sometimes pushing their threat to astronomical heights with their massive crit percentages.

I will often charge in with the rest of them and grab up a mob or two to keep me busy. But from there, I will often turn my camera around (yes, sometimes I'm tanking backwards--didn't Ginger Rogers do everything better backwards and in heels?) and start watching the DPS. Many casters play it close to the wire, pushing their threat to 102.9% and calling that safe. Their crits will often push them over the line, so I will then zip around and pick up mobs that get wise to who's really sapping the life from them (hint: it ain't the tanks). I may end up dragging a mob out of the AoE cluster, but once I pick up the breakaways, I drag them back to the cluster and get them back into that AoE damage.

If that means I lose control of the mob or two I initially grabbed to another tank, so be it. A paladin--the best AoE tank in the game--doesn't need me to build threat on mobs that are well within his/her control. Paladins are one kind of scalpel; I'm another. Of course, we can generalize this to any tanking. Tanks don't always need other tanks to build threat underneath them. Sometimes this is a good idea, but building threat under other tanks is a skill that should be used as a scalpel, not a hammer.

Some good buttons to have ready are Intervene, of course, as well as Charge, Taunt, Mocking Blow, and Concussion Blow. Shockwave should be used as a last resort or for a lot of breakaway mobs, otherwise it's best used with the pack. I have an Intervene macro to target my target's target and Intervene him/her. I have the Warbringer talent so I can charge in any stance and in combat. Taunt is a no-brainer, but Mocking Blow can be used if you have to do two taunts in rapid succession. Concussion Blow can be used to give you the breathing room to get better control, if the DPS hasn't burned it down by then.

The result is this: DPS folks die less. Mobs die faster. If your guild is still struggling through content, it means less wipes to trash, more time spent working on bosses, and overall more patience from your raiders. Trash can easily eat a few DPS or healers apiece if the tanks aren't on the ball. No one wants to wipe to trash--it's embarrassing and demoralizing. If your guild has a dungeon on farm, it means a faster, cleaner raid. You don't have to spend as much time pausing for rezzes and rebuffs. You get more epics per hour spent raiding. Your guild feels more competent and confident. People don't complain about repair bills and lost consumables.

Avoiding tanking too much means a bit of a paradigm shift for some people, especially those who see themselves as THE main tank. But it's everyone's job to be watchful, especially the tanks, especially since it leads to better, more efficient raids and happier raiders.