The Genius of the Big Bear Butt

So BBB made a post for new tanks and I think it’s great advice for those just starting out. I think he missed a few points, and I will take the opportunity to hit on them fairly quickly.

1. Tanking is about confidence. Timid tanks are the worst. Your group can smell fear on you as if they were a group of rabid dogs on a mailman. This is not to imply that tanking is about arrogance, but confidence is a vital tool. The same can be said for all the roles, but none require quite the gusto that a tank does. You are the first to go into battle. You need to be confident that you have the stats and gear to withstand any encounter you are about to tackle. You should know your abilities and if you feel you need a CC, ask for one. This isn’t an area where people tend to argue or contribute advice. They expect the tank to know how many mobs he can take pounding him to a pulp. The general rule here is if you don’t know if you can take the hits from mob 4 or 5 ask for a cc because it is always better safe than sorry. Asking for CC, though there is little of that anymore doesn’t mean you lack confidence, it means you aren’t a giant dumb ass who is going to risk frying the healers keyboard and mouse.

2. To expound on BBB’s knowledge is power, you should do your very best to understand the classes you are running with. I have an alt of every class except a warrior. This by no means makes me an expert on every class, but it helps to understand where certain classes excel. If you are not an alta-holic like myself, the best advice I can give is to observe. Watch the other classes and see how they respond when shit hits the fan. Be mindful of a mage that drops a poly on a mob that’s attacking the healer that you can’t pick up, compliment him and ask mages in the future if they don’t mind doing that if you happen to be on a run where you have aggro monkeys. Everyone will appreciate your limited knowledge of their class and no one ever gets upset when you ask them to do something that makes them feel like they are contributing. Helping the druid healer you are with in UP by asking the ret pally to cleanse disease or the elemental shaman to drop a cleansing totem because the druid can’t lets everyone know that you understand the classes you have with you and that you can be trusted. Along these lines, if you don’t know, ask. If you are in AN, ask who’s got the poison cleansing. If the healer can handle the poison let them handle it. If they can’t don’t be afraid to ask a DPS to compromise some of their dps to make the encounter easier for the whole group. Great hybrids who contribute in situations like this is one of the primary reasons damage meters can be overrated.

3. Remember that healers (especially ones with whom you have rapport) are a tanks best friend. You should understand your healers. As a pally, I have zero problems with snap threat, so druids are my personal favorite in 5 mans. You should be able to “feel” the heals that are coming into you. Learning to feel those heals teaches you when to use your cool downs. Again, as a paladin, you have to learn to feel the heals on the raid as well. Does it look like the healer is struggling to keep a dps who can’t avoid splash damage? Use your Hand of Protection on that dps and buy the healer some time. Always, always, always compliment good healers at the end of a good run. Good healers are priceless and often underappreciated.

4. Always work on mastering the art of tank & type. If you are not on vent, you maybe required to type messages to the group while things are going to hell. This is not always easy to maintain all of your duties and type messages to the raid. One handed typists have an advantage here, and there’s no need for anyone to try and pretend like you have never done that /wink

-Rhab