Do you open w/ Charge + Shockwave?

I'm basically just looking for tips on how to use Shockwave such that Shockwave doesn't miss. I particularly like opening with it after (or sometimes during) Charge, depending on how the mobs are grouped.

Sometimes I charge in and hit all the mobs w/ Shockwave and love that opener. Other times I'll charge in, hit Shockwave, and it misses a mob or two, and I can't quite see what I did differently, though I assume that the center of the missed mobs' target circle must have been slightly outside the Shockwave radius.

Is this just a matter of developing judgement through lots of practice, or are there any tips or tricks to using this ability better?

Thanks!

Never shockwave on the pull is my trick =p.

This is my preferred AoE pull opener:
Charge -> TC -> Shield Slam -> Shockwave -> tab Devastate -> TC

A little trick for hitting everything with shockwave is to take a step back right before you launch it. This requires you to have aggro on all the mobs first.

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Originally Posted by Muffin Man

Never shockwave on the pull is my trick =p.

This is my preferred AoE pull opener:
Charge -> TC -> Shield Slam -> Shockwave -> tab Devastate -> TC

A little trick for hitting everything with shockwave is to take a step back right before you launch it. This requires you to have aggro on all the mobs first.

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Exactly right. For AoE tanking I charge in, TC, take a few steps back till they're all in line and shockwave. After they come out of the stun I use Shield Block to make the healer a sad panda. "Why is tehy do no damages to u?" Tab devastating in between is winners.

For all normal pulls with one or two casters circle strafing works wonders to group mobs up in one spot in front of you, and shock wave never misses. That's what I do most of the time right after the charge and while using ss/tc for initial agro.

Yea what they said plus when charging in there if there is a caster, Heroic Throw to silence him and bring him running over, if there is > 1 casters HT 1 of em and take the fight to another and Shield Bash him while strafing past Thunder Clapping to bring em into the frontal Shockwave cone.. Then turn and fire or front-up and back step to make sure.. Taking a strafe sidestep or backwards step before Shockwave is something I do everytime and I almost always get all the mobs..

Alright thanks all. So Charge -> Position mobs -> then Shockwave. Much appreciated.

For aoe, I usually charge and queue up a cleave. I can usually hit thunderclap basically at the same time as the cleave goes off. If it's a HUGE pack, I then demo just to make sure I tagged everything. I shockwave next, once I am sure I'll hit everything I want to hit.

Ya you don't want to blow SW off a charge.

Charge>Thunder Clap>Position>Shockwave.

Sometimes i charge>shieldslam, give the mobs 1 gcd to come to me, then tc>shockwave>tab devastate and concussion blow the last mob while i run to the next group.

If you dig through the guide videos, there's one by Ciderhelm demonstrating his tclap-on-the-move. Basically you target the mob at the very back, press charge and tclap on the way in. The timing is pretty tricky to get right and with the lovely serverside latency that's regular these days it becomes near impossible. But if you practice a bit it usually works.

What i do is, target the back mob, charge & tclap on the way in with a shieldblocked shieldslam at the ready, turn around, shockwave. If you did it well, tclap should be coming off cooldown on the next GCD. That's 2 tclaps & 1 SW as opener before your dps even started. It's usually enough to hold aggro.

As for heroic throw, i have a second one macroed to cast it at my focus target. That way i can target my primary mob & heroic throw that caster on the charge. If there's a second one, that is usually my charge target with bash replacing slam. As soon as sw effect is over, i pop a reflect for any extra casters.

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Originally Posted by Bigbad

concussion blow the last mob while i run to the next group.

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My favorite use for conc blow. :p

Yes, the step back thing is great, for Shockwave...sometimes, the mobs will actually line up, like a "Rockettes" dance troupe! I got into the habit of jumping up and down once or twice, after the Shockwave, as a way of letting my guildie mage friend know I had enough aggro for her to open up on the mobs. We found that was a better way, than relying on the threat meter, or graphic animation to give indications. You may want to do something similar, to let your group know when to start dps...particularly when it's a pug. It will probably be more effective than just typing, "Give me a few secs, to get aggro--k?" I'll just say, "When you see me jump up, go for it!"

As dps, I try to look for visual cues, as a way to know if tank has aggro...like, are the mobs coming together to him, or are they peeling off and heading to the healer?

Ok, I totally forgot to mention the #1 reason why you shouldn't open up with a shockwave right away. RAGE. After the initial charge + thunderclap, you will take a hit or two. Without the extra rage from a few mobs swinging at you , it's a lot more difficult to get super solid threat on them. It sucks if you shockwave right away and then have 8k dps blowing them up while they're stunned and you barely have any rage to use any abilities. Getting hit or swung at those initial few times after you charge is super important to being able to produce great threat right off the bat. It's the difference between having to tell your dps to hold off a few sec and daring them to try and pull off of you at all.

Personally I wait 12-15seconds to SW as TC cleaves tab dev will normally grab em all. I use tidy/threat plates and as the dps in my guild is getting nearer the 10k lvl if any plates turns yellow then Bang! SW goes off to give me a small window to get em all red again. But every pull is slightly diff so it's being adaptive to each pull (tank awareness) that your guild will love you for ever. For the dps to be able to let rip as soon as u pull makes a succesfull clear.
Experiment is the key and being able to see that yeah SW need to go off (now) to keep those mobs on you and not beating your dps to death with your healers arms.

I've tried using threatplates a few times over the past 2-3 months. I just can't get myself to like it, especially if I'm not the only one tanking. Those plates get way too big, lol. I've also had it bug out on me a few times and work backwards. One of these times, I was doing the piercing howl kite thing during heroic deathwhisper and it was pretty distracting to say the least. Aloft + nameplate glow enabled but using healthbar color instead of glow works really well for me.

12-15sec seems like too long to wait for shockwave tho. That will most likely lower your dps/tps output esp if you are tanking a large pack.

Personally My tanking rotations is Charge, Thunder, Shockwave, Tab target devestate unless sword and board procs in that case i use sheild slam. By the time the mobs are out of the stun effect i have decent threat on them and from there u just tab revenge andd devestate and sheild slam when it is off CD.

Make sure you throw up Demoralizing Shout as well. Reducing your Target(s) AP makes you live longer and everyone kicks a goal if tank doesnt die.

When pulling packs of melee I usually go with:
charge-> thunderclap-> strafe/turn em around-> shockwave -> demoralizing shout -> shield block -> shield slam -> start tab devestating -> shield slam/revenge when s&b procs -> cleaving all the while...

if there is a caster or 2 in the pack I Heroic Throw em to pull em over to the pack or charge in, thunderclap, pull entire pack to 1 caster, shockwave then while they are stunned run over to other caster and shield bash him and pull him back to the pack..where i continue the rotation..

make sure you keep thunder clap on the mobs as well, its useful for more than the initial pull, demoralizing shout is overlooked alot i reckon...

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Originally Posted by Bodasafa

Ya you don't want to blow SW off a charge.

Charge>Thunder Clap>Position>Shockwave.

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This.

Also, by the time the shockwave stun is off, TC has usually reset, so you can pop it again if you have a really AOE heavy group. +1 on the tab/devistate especially on group of more than 3.

I guess I do it just slightly different.

Bloodrage> Comm. Shout> Heroic Throw> Charge> TC> position> Cleave> Rotation

I usually saving shockwave for if anything start to pull off of me. I Start with Charge-TC-devspam/cleave saving, then if I still have SW hot, I blast if off then.