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I've gotten to the point where my gear is decent and heroics are a non-event, anyone know of any guides or videos on the basics of chain pulling? I'm assuming it involves agroing one group before you finish the last but any more advice than that? Or just general advice to make pulls faster (assuming dps/heals can keep up)
FYI I'm a warrior tank.
Basically it is about using stuns and aggro effectively. A side note would be you need to learn how to balance the heals coming in, and the dps going out to ensure a smooth run.
That is more important than how to pull uber mobs, which is usually tab-devastate/revenge/shield slam to 40% then shockwave then pull next and so on.
I don't think there's anything specific on chain pulling other than general advice to give. Take care of your healer is my first suggestion. If they're a lower geared healer be conscious of their mana between pulls and let them drink if needed. With better geared healers I would tell them at the start that you're going to keep chain pulling and won't stop unless they tell you "mana break". If you don't do this some healers will complain the tank is going to fast, and if you take it easy some will complain you're going too slow. As far as dps is concerned, well, everyone has their own opinions. I play a healer, tank and dps and I like having time to loot or drink if needed between pulls. Other tanks don't give a crap about their dps and will continue to pull while the dps plays catch up. My advice on this is just be courteous to the group and if the dps keep asking for you to stop so they can drink or loot then give them some slack. The only exception I have to this is skinners, I'm not about to stand around for a minute or two while you skin all the mobs from each pull. One last suggestion is skipping mobs. If it's an easy group that you can skip by hugging a wall then cool, but I've seen tanks run right between 2 groups and 1 step off the line would aggro. It's best to just pull 1 group because chances are someone isn't going to walk the line well enough and pull them anyway and it's best to be prepared to tank the mobs.
Me personally, I break only for my healer. Plenty of times, I've been top dps and damage done as tank before (including once in a succesful HoR run) so the extra dps in my mind is all gravy. They want to stop and loot or skin.. fine by me. They can catch up when they get a chance. I will never complain if a dps is falling behind. They have a right to loot/eat/drink, even though I personally skip it. As long as my healer is happy and I can control all the mobs I've picked up, I don't stop. I have a pally/druid and warrior tank. As a warrior I'm going to charge, shockwave, don't stop running, spin and hit cleave a couple of times, engage second pull, cleave, shockwave, and then charge a 3rd group and spin and aoe threat tab target and run through my aoe tanking abilities as quickly as possible. If you're moving fast enough, the hope is DPS doesn't start unloading until they see you stop, because they are going to be too busy hauling butt to catch up. If they do start DPSing, you probably lost aggro on something from the first pull and you need to slow it down, regain control and then tank while backing up. Silence the ranged so they come to you and just keep moving. I often will pull the next set of adds before the current ones I have are dead, and depending on the mobs health, I often turn my back to the mobs completely and charge at the next set because I know I have enough of a threat lead that the dps will kill them before they pull them off me.
Basically it boils down to this... take as many mobs as you can maintain complete control over and that your healer can heal you through. Watch your healers mana yourself. You should know without being told they need a mana break. Watch your healer on the minimap. If they aren't following you.. wait for them. Be aware of special abilities that can make chain pulling a bad idea... More than once, I've forgotten that on the way to the rock boss in Halls of Stone, there are adds that can mind control. 1 add by itself, no big deal it usually dies before it gets it off, but under my normal chain pulling thinking, I would take those adds in 2 sets. First set from the entrance of the side chamber all the way up to the little arch you walk through. 2nd set up to the boss. I keep forgetting there's mind controls in there and my overly impatient tanking tends to leads to wipes there completely my fault.
Lots of good tips already. Here's what I try and pay attention to when I chain pull.
1. Cooldowns. Chainpulls = aoe, which means I need to leverage shockwave, thunderclap, cleave and revenge plus a whole lot of tab targeting. Know what's up and ready and make sure when you start with a new group you've got SW and TC ready.
2. Healer. Know your healer and their ability to keep up with the increased damage you and potentially the party will be taking.
3. DPS. Less important than the healer, but sometimes the ability to successfully chainpull is limited by the DPS ability to kill lots of mobs in a timely fashion.
4. Pull before the last mob dies on your current group. If you've got aggro good and locked, there's no reason not to pull the next group and drag what you're currently fighting to the new pull.
5. Use all your tricks. When trying to collect multiple groups remember you have lots of ways to get aggro. Charge, Intercept, Heroic Throw, Taunt, proximity are all valid ways to get the attention of a new group. If your dps has a clue, they'll give you a sec to herd a bunch together (or help with tricks/misdirect) and lock aggro.
6. Have fun.
So sounds like the general idea is to just pick up a second mob after you have solid agro on the first and make sure the healer can keep up? Thanks for the advice guys keep it coming if something wasn't said already.
From a DPS perspective, the best advice you could gleen out of all this is to know your group (how hard can you push before your healer OOMs- this includes your DPS downing the trash or becoming aggro whores and outside of play-style a quick inspection usually does the trick for PUGs), warn your group (so DPS will know to hold fire until you're ready) and be patient (not everyone has the same skill set or mind set). The only thing I would actually add is to try not to move mobs out of the AoE- on some nights I would swear the tank was trying to sabbotage me by pulling out of my just set AoE lol! There used to be a guy on YouTube who did guides for single pulling the entire Scarlet wing- think it was Hobs or Hobbs or something like that- he would do voice over and give advice that might apply to chain pulling in Wrath Heroics.
In all honesty, however, I really hate the chain pulling you run into using the LFG tool. You have to rush everything, meaning you don't get to enjoy any strategy or mechanic other than facerolling, unless you're the tank; AoE tends to require channeling and unless you actually want your DPS to single target, this gets old fast and sucks up the mana, which makes more down time for me which makes more running after you to catch up and less looting/mining/skinning/ or w/e. And skipping mobs has become skipping bosses, which means less rep, less loot and less badges- I'd rather wait for a PUG that planned on clearing the bosses than jump in one that's all about how fast can we kill the last boss to get the frost badges. Just some food for thought.