[SionaAmanThul]

Hey fellow tanks,

I'm a relatively new tank. I've done about 10 instance runs all non-herioc. I'm progressing into more challenging 70 instances and need some advice from experienced tanks.

Picture this:

Your in a normal instance. You're faced with three mobs- a melee, a caster and a healer.

You're leading your PUG and marking to set the kill order.

How would you mark and tank this very common situation?

Before you answer, let me tell you what happened to me recently.

I place a moon on the healer, a skull on the melee and an X on the caster. I wanted to sheep the healer, have the offtank take the caster and I would tank the melee. What happened was that the healer was sheeped, the offtank and DPS went on the skull along with me. The caster opened up on the DPS and took one down. We survived but barely.

In your opinion, what went wrong here?

Thanks in advance for your sage advice.

All the best

[loquatious]

I would kill the caster first because it has the lowest health, off tank the warrior and sheep the healer. In many many pulls the dps can just focus on the caster without you haiving to tank it. Your dont really take significantly less damage from the spells and simply by tossing a taunt at the caster or a stun you will probably see him drop in less than 10 seconds without significantly hurting the party. You now have tons of threat on the warrior mob - everyone can go all out and drop it before the sheep breaks.

[SionaAmanThul]

Thanks.

Let me see if I understand you.

You would skull the caster, X the melee and moon the healer using my marking system. So the offtank would take the melee and I and the DPS would hit the caster. Is that right?

[Norrath]

No. Basically, you mark skull on the caster but you don't tank it. You generally don't have to, they die fast.

You just focus on tanking the melee.

[Crimsonstorm]

Melee should always be tanked and are low priority.

Healers should be killed first when focusing on them you can interrupt heals). If you CC them and it breaks its a big pain.

Casters should be CCed. Because they are hard to pull / tank.

[Mordigen]

Either ways works as long as everyone performs, sheeping either healer or caster and killing whatever of the two you decide not to sheep. I myself like to sheep healer, start by pulling caster for initial aggro, maybe a shield slam and a devastate or 2 and a concussion blow then move on to the melee using cleave to damage the caster and maybe hold the aggro a little longer. I try to stay away from offtanks in the 5 mans due to the healer having to switch targets to much, and prefer to tank anything myself, but depending on your gear and multimob tanking confidence, it is an option if you have a hybrid that can tank the caster.

[Norrath]

I... just tank everything. >_< In normal 5-mans, I don't even bother with CC anymore.

[SionaAmanThul]

What? Tank everything?

I'll hold on to two mobs pretty well but three or more I find it very difficult. Remember that I'm dealing with PUGs that really don't look at threat meters and just start unloading to get the highest on the damage meters.

I like the idea of sheeping the healer and pulling the caster. However, the problem usually is that I'm pulling with my ranged weapon. The caster just turns and begins to cast against me. There's a very large distance between us initially so he usually unloads a spell or two on me before I reach him. How do you deal with that?

Thanks again.

[Rabidwombat]

Iff you can convince your dps (I know it is hard with PUGs) to focus fire on a single target at a time, multi-tanking is tons easier. By placing full dps on the caster, you can watch the healer and interrupt when necessary. A thunderclap/cleave or some sunders (via the hover sunder macro) will hold the melee on you.

Regarding pulling casters at range: use walls/corners and Line-of-Sight (LoS) to your advantage. If the mob can't see you, he can't cast that shadow bolt at you. If your ranged dps doesn't wait for the mob to run to the group, they may get zapped (they learn fast though).

[veneretio]

(fyi people really need to specify if they are a warrior, druid or pally for this kind of question)

A lot of possibilities here, I'd say your easiest route is: (assuming you are a warrior)

1. Kill Healer, Tank Melee, Sheep Caster
- Interuppt the one heal the healer will attempt and you win. This is my far the best route in my opinion.

2. Kill Melee, Tank Caster, Sheep Healer
- I do this one pretty often b/c its fun. I'll hold agg on the caster via Spell Reflect (assuming its not one that fears, etc) and simply focus all threat on the melee. (this is definitely one of the less favourable routes for someone still learning though)

2a. Kill Healer, Tank Caster, Sheep Melee
- Variation on #2 that should lead to 2 mobs going down the fastest possible and also lets you have Spell Reflect fun. You do run the risk though of not having enough rage to consistently use Spell Reflect. (that being said the pull is intended to kill 2 mobs very fast... once again not really ideal if you are learning)

3. Kill Caster, Tank Melee, Sheep Healer
- Honestly, I hate this route and a lot of people love it, but it's not my recommendation for the simple fact that it gives you the least control over the outcome of the pull which a strong tank should never want. It's hardest on the healer just so you can have an easy time. Furthermore, you run the risk especially in a pug situation of the healer becoming unsheeped (possibly b/c the mage has forgot to renewed it) and landing a heal on one of the other mobs.

What you really need to take away from this is that you can pretty much do the pull any way you want and as long as you and your team understand how best to handle that particular pull then you can easily tank it. A 3 mob situation really does become trivial though as your team starts out gearing the content.

[SionaAmanThul]

Thanks.

BTW, prot-specced warrior.

[Naka]

Source: SionaAmanThul I like the idea of sheeping the healer and pulling the caster. However, the problem usually is that I'm pulling with my ranged weapon. The caster just turns and begins to cast against me. There's a very large distance between us initially so he usually unloads a spell or two on me before I reach him. How do you deal with that?

If there's no corner to pull the caster around, do the following:
Pull from maximum distance, turn around, pop Bloodrage and run, so he has to follow you, until he is in a safe position to melee-tank him. Turn around again, put a Devestate on the melee who runs towards you, then Zerkerstance -> Intercept on the caster, as soon as you are in range. Back to Defstance, Shieldbash and then just tank him and the melee with Thunderclap, Cleave, Devestate, ...

Requires some practicing, but you will learn it fast.

[Narshe]

Remember this always works in almost every pull but Mana Tombs ones, where the healer is crap and the casters have to be burned out before they deplete ur mana or start summoning adds.
This is why I love that instance, where knowledge wins over brute force.