Taunt Mechanics Guide/Discussion

[kpxneophyte]

Nice post, though there is something that comes to mind in regards to diminishing returns.

If you would like to (with the loads of time you have, apparently), you could get a more accurate diminishing return timer down on the taunt by using both hand of reckoning and righteous defense on a boss mob, say like in Stockades or SM. Take another tank and taunt back and forth. Since diminishing return immunity happens at the end of the last non-immune taunt duration (aka the 3rd one) you should be able to taunt every 4 seconds and have a taunt rotation every 2 seconds, that is, if you bring another paladin.
(e.g.
0000 --- You Hand of Reckoning
0002 --- Him Hand of Reckoning
0004 --- You Righteous Defense
0006 --- Him Righteous Defense
Rinse and repeat)

[xstratax]

Based on what I recall from BC heroics and Kara, and reading the Tooltip, Righteous Defence does not have a fixate, only makes you the Current Aggro Holder (#2 in the OP). I rarely ever use it in WotLK, and havent had a good Lock in my raids yet (that and threat is much higher than it used to be), so Im not sure if they changed it since, or something. When I used it in TBC, DPS used to pull right off me before the GCD was up.

Righteous Defence:
Come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead.

[Martie]

Based on what I recall from BC heroics and Kara, and reading the Tooltip, Righteous Defence does not have a fixate, only makes you the Current Aggro Holder (#2 in the OP). I rarely ever use it in WotLK, and havent had a good Lock in my raids yet (that and threat is much higher than it used to be), so Im not sure if they changed it since, or something. When I used it in TBC, DPS used to pull right off me before the GCD was up.

Righteous Defence:
Come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead.

I'm pretty sure Righteous Defense has a fixation effect built in these days.

[xstratax]

I figured as much, I just dont use RD enough to notice anymore I guess

[jere]

It does have the fixation effect. You can test that by finding someone killing a single mob somewhere, target the mob and use righteous defense. You will see the mob get a debuff for 3 seconds. The debuff represents the fixation effect.

[Aggathon]

Great post jere. I'm going to link this in my warrior guide if that's okay with you.

[jere]

Totally fine

[GravityDK]

I'm wondering, in ICC with some fights like Saurfang and Festergut where a missed taunt has greater consequences, are there any tanks glyphing Taunt now?

[Angriff]

I glyphed it for our first Putricide kill, and may continue to do so there. As a DK or Paladin it's slightly less important since you have a real backup taunt (rather than fixates like Challenging Shout/Roar and Mocking blow), but I imagine that most Warriors and Bears are glyphing it for a few more fights. Heroic Saurfang might be another where it becomes pretty important though even for DK/Paladin since any extra attacks on the tank after getting the debuff will probably risk killing said tank.

(Of course there's always a chance that both taunts get resisted, but assuming you run with a decent amount of hit gear that chance should be vanishingly small. Assuming 230 hit for alliance, you have 8.77% spell hit + 3 from Misery/Imp FF and +1 from a Draenei you're looking at a 4.23% chance at missing one taunt which means a .18% chance of both taunts missing)

[Proletaria]

I'm wondering, in ICC with some fights like Saurfang and Festergut where a missed taunt has greater consequences, are there any tanks glyphing Taunt now?

I really hope no dk tanks are silly enough to do that (since DG by design or unintentionally, never misses).

Death-grip = I need this taunt to land. If i miss the raid wipes.

Dark Command is = I might want to help this poor fool who crit conflag on the add as it spawned. Oh darn I missed.

[GravityDK]

Also is it confirmed Death Grip is a taunt, not fixate? I think it was changed in a patch, but I couldn't google the answer.
It's odd that it never misses, in either case, but that's certainly the way it seems.

[Angriff]

Death Grip is definitely a real taunt and not just a fixate. I can't say I'd ever realized it was incapable of missing though. I've always used it as my reserve taunt for when Dark Command misses, unless there's the ability or need to actually move the mob with DG.

[GravityDK]

The death grip yanking bit can be resisted, but the taunt doesn't for some reason. It's odd.
Thanks for confirming it's a proper taunt, I didn't realise that.

[Proletaria]

Death Grip is definitely a real taunt and not just a fixate. I can't say I'd ever realized it was incapable of missing though. I've always used it as my reserve taunt for when Dark Command misses, unless there's the ability or need to actually move the mob with DG.

To quote the DK who let me in on this secret (who shall go un-named) "ur doin it wrong."

Death-grip should be your primary, use DC when ya can't dg because of cooldown. It is, quite literally, incapable of missing.

[GravityDK]

I just did some testing, and Death Grip does appear to have a taunt mechanic, however I had a friend report it can miss. This warrant some other people testing.

[jere]

Yep, deathgrip is indeed a Taunt. You can see that from how it affects the threat table after it happens. I would need to test with my DK to see it's missable status though

[Satorri]

I've seen it miss, once recently and I have pretty heavy hit rating at the moment. But testing would be more solid data.

This was the only time I've ever seen it miss though which is odd. This may have been a recent switch, or a quirk of its functionality. I suspect it may be incapable of missing on a target that is not immune ot the physical pull effect as that has never failed.

[jere]

The only problem I'll have with testing it is my DK is too low level. The target dummies are "tapped" so I cant run any tests on it, and I definitely am not high enough to try any raid bosses. Suggestions? Level 65 at the moment. Or if any of you DK's want to do some testing?

[GravityDK]

I can confirm it can miss its taunt: Splug tried it on a Lich King add.