Warrior in need of help pulling multiple targets

[Newtronica]

Hello. I have been reading the TS forums and articles for several weeks to improve my tanking skills. I have gotten a lot better, but I still have several areas to improve upon. When in a boss fight or with trash mobs, I can generally hold aggro against my guilds DPS, so that isnt really a problem. The problem I am having in Heroics is on fights such as Slad'ran (when the snakes begin coming very fast and furiously towards our healers) and the Brann Bronzebeard (where mob after mob keeps coming) quest in HoS.

Initially I can grab aggro from the adds, but they let go and I have a hard time getting them back. Usually by that time, my Thunder Clap and other AOE spells are on cooldown, so I am kind of lost. The only thing I know to do at that point is to start running around like a tool trying to regain the aggro from whoever the mobs have moved on to next. I will post my Armory page, in case there are any talent changes or enchants/gems that will help me with this. I use the typical rotation for my spells and am just at a loss.

I enjoy playing with my guild and would like to stop getting them killed or wasting peoples time when they group with me, so any suggestions would be surely welcomed.

Thank you all for the great site and articles. This is truly a wonderful resource.

The World of Warcraft Armory

[Jivatma]

The Best insta-cast aggro grabber ever - Demoralizing Shout. Now granted this doesn't have very much aggro at all. its just initially designed to grab aggro until they hit you and can hopefully Tclap when you have a few. The next best thing is "anticipation" know whats coming up. don't be afraid to dps a snake or dwarf and just let the boss lose a teeny bit of aggro to hold aggro.

as far as Slad'ran and Bronzebeard goes - these are some of the most hectic fights. when you get to naxx gothikk and the like you will also have a bit of problem just because of the difficulty a warrior tends to have grabbing a lot of aggro on many different mobs quickly.

[Newtronica]

Thank you for the quick reply, Jivatma.

I will give DS a shout tonight. Im beginning to wonder if maybe I am just too slow to play a warrior tank. I have ran these instances with our guild's MT before, and he seems to have no problems picking up the adds as they come. Im using binded keys and such, but maybe its just an issue of not enough practice.

Thanks again, I will try using DS more as the adds start and see if that is what I need to grab these guys faster. Previously I had just been hitting Thunder Clap to initially grab them, then start with my SS etc rotation. I guess it would be better to go DS/TC/other AOE I cant remember/then the regular rotation. Those damn snakes just come so fast...

[Shadevarr]

Here is a repost from a post I made in our guild's forums on how to quickly tank trash in heroics. I hope it helps.

In order to clear heroics quickly it requires the tank to know the abilities and composition of each trash pack and their own abilities. I am not going to take the time to describe each pull in each heroic but I will describe what needs to be done for certain combinations.

single mob
charge or heroic throw, depending on wether charge is safe (95% it's safe to charge)
pop bloodrage and berzerker rage both
Open with Shield Slam, conc blow, shockwave, dev, dev (apply heroic strike when rage heavy)
then prioritize as follows Shield Slam, revenge, shockwave, conc blow, thunderclap, devastate

full melee pack
charge and thunderclap mid charge
step through the pack, spin and shockwave + cleave
shield slam, shield block
then prioritize shockwave, thunderclap, shield block (use cleave as a rage dump)

pure caster pack (assuming 4 casters)
Shoot #1, heroic throw #4, charge #3 and shield bash, walk over to #2 conc blow (thunderclap while moving), shield bash #1 when available, once the whole pack is close, shockwave.

Mixed pack (2 casters, 2 melee)
same as full melee pack, except you must heroic throw one caster and charge the other.


tip: always keep an eye on your parties mana, it they are over 80% overall barring hunters and warlocks then pull the next group when the last mob is at 20%. Minimize OUT OF COMBAT time, force mana users to use their mana recovery abilies, they all got 'em. They will thank you for it afterwards.

Just remember to stop when someone actually asks for mana, but pull when their mana is at 80%. They will be full by time you have solid aggro.

[Shadevarr]

HoS and Gundrak both have very challenging fights. A few things that helped me with the tribunal was keeping saving shockwave and spell reflect for the casters, popping retaliation when the 1st golem comes down, and overall really focusing on awareness of every mob, their location and how long before the dps killed them. It is probably the most challenging encounter outside of raids blizz has designed for a tank.

Snake boss...don't worry about keeping aggro on the healer. Just have everyone stack on the boss and at 40% have them AoE like madmen. It is a pretty simple fight once you get the hang of it.

Spec wise: 3/3 deep wounds will help a lot with aoe aggro

[Newtronica]

Minimize OUT OF COMBAT time

Thank you both for all the awesome advice. But I dont really understand this part. Could you possibly elaborate a bit more on exactly what is OUT OF COMBAT time?

I hate to come off a bit dim here, but I am not familiar with this term.

Thanks again guys/gals.

[Zed]

Thank you both for all the awesome advice. But I dont really understand this part. Could you possibly elaborate a bit more on exactly what is OUT OF COMBAT time?

I hate to come off a bit dim here, but I am not familiar with this term.

Thanks again guys/gals.

its basically when you're out of combat lol. you know how you cant mount or eat/drink when you're in combat? Well when you can do those things, you're out of combat.

the suggestion is to pretty much chain pull when appropriate. you want to minimize the time between fighting (to as close to zero as reasonably possible) to make the run faster. because classes that require mana cant drink in combat, you want to keep the pace fast so that they are forced to use their in-combat regen abilities.... i.e. innervate, hymns, aspect of the viper, etc... which are generally faster means of mana regen compared to sitting down to eat.

the exception is boss fights, i always let dps/heals drink up to full before then.

[Newtronica]

Okay, that makes sense then. I had never really thought about that.

I generally will pause after each pull just in case, but maybe this will help get us through Heroics at a better pace. It does feel like when we are on a quicker pace that I can better move through my spells and such more consistently. Hopefully they will give me another shot at tanking Gundrak or HoS this week and I can report back as to if the results change in any way.

[Atsum]

Something I have always done when tanking Heroic Gun is to do the Snake boss second. I take the second boss Colossus down first then get a hunter to MD, or DK/Warlock to send a pet in to aggro the Snake boss to me at Colossus' room. He tends to do his AoE poison nova as soon as he reaches the room so keep melee out of it and then dps him down. He usually gets one more AoE poison nova off before he dies and the dps just burn him down. You will get a couple of snakes go for the healer but they go down fast with good dps so I don't even bother trying to pick them up.


The constrictors used to stay in the room where he aggroes but sometimes they make it to Colossus' room but by that time Sla'dran is dead. I have done it with 3 dps all below 1500, so if you have a group with 1500+ dps it will be easier. Hope this helps that particular fight.

Also are you sure the dps isn't using AoE or are not assisting your main targets? I find alot of times when I lose aggro it is because the three dps are all on different targets. If you ask them to just wait 3 seconds before AoE'ing you should have solid aggro.

As for Heroic HoS, standing on the top platform of the steps going into the room where Brann is working on the console is the best spot to stand. Demo Shout and TC keeps them on ya and again AoE makes them go down pretty fast. Definitely easier if you have a Ret Pally and Unholy DK in your group though.

[volman]

Lots of good advice so far for you.

This may be a no brainer but make sure your Glyphs are the Glyphs that make multiple target tanking easier.....i.e...Glyph of Cleave (hits an extra mob), Glyph of Thunder Clap (extends TC area), Glyph of Revenge (builds aggro on an extra target).

P.S.-I noticed you had DPS trinkets and Necklace DPS gem equipped. If those are your primary items for now work on getting items with better tank stats to help your job become easier.