Auto Attack? Yes or No?

[Zeiken]

Hey guys, ive seen a lot of videos with tanks using Auto Attack, as their number 1 button (default) on their action bars.

Iam like WHYYYY. That spot i would rather put in another spell?

Can anyone tell me WHY the tanks are using auto attack, and if i should use it?

Im a druid tank btw, and ive just seen videos on the internet including ensidia tanks using it, but im still like, why? :S

[Molohk]

There may be a situation where you don't have enough rage to use an offensive ability (which automattically starts auto-attack) and you're not already auto-attacking, so activating autoattacks would allow you start dealing damage (and threat) earlier and help a bit with rage generation.

I personally macro /startattack into my main abilities, that way I can use those buttons to start auto-attacking even if I don't have enough rage to use an ability.

[Zeiken]

There may be a situation where you don't have enough rage to use an offensive ability (which automattically starts auto-attack) and you're not already auto-attacking, so activating autoattacks would allow you start dealing damage (and threat) earlier and help a bit with rage generation.

I personally macro /startattack into my main abilities, that way I can use those buttons to start auto-attacking even if I don't have enough rage to use an ability.

Simply right click with the mouse? i already do that when targetting..

[Kavtor]

Sometimes it's useful to turn your auto attack off (a sheep target, or certain mobs that do nasty things to you when you hit them) so it's useful to have it bound somewhere.

But to have it in such a valuable spot so close to your main keys is rather silly. Primarily a holdover from the original level one UI more than anything.

[Molohk]

I use the mouse for moving my toon and camera angle, and mouse-targetting while moving around is really not that effective for me. Using the keyboard to start autoattack is much more effective and intuitive for someone who uses controls like I do.

And Kav is right, it also helps turning it off without using escape (bloodlord, lol).

[Zeiken]

Sometimes it's useful to turn your auto attack off (a sheep target, or certain mobs that do nasty things to you when you hit them) so it's useful to have it bound somewhere.

But to have it in such a valuable spot so close to your main keys is rather silly. Primarily a holdover from the original level one UI more than anything.

"Escape" is the ideal choice for that, incase you accidently press auto attack more than once

[loquatious]

Start attack is pretty much worthless, but stop attack is handy. Mine is bound to the 7 key. The 1 is way to valuable to waste on that.

[Martie]

I use the escape key to stop attacking.

There are some pulls in Ulduar trash where I actually pull a mob away from the damage area so we can crowd control them.

[Zeiken]

So what i have read now here, is that no offence, the top guild tanks are pretty stupid to waste one action bar slot with this worthless attack, when we are already use a shit load of space in there, i thoud there was something really imba about having it in the number 1 spot, like some kind of way to quickly tank or something like that.

Start attack is useless, since if ur AOE tanking you will probably take so much damage that you WILL get rage enough to make an attack very fast, else use right click, which doesnt use up a spot. If your moving and AOE tanking then it wouldnt help either because of you getting hit by them you get the rage to do AOE abilities.

Stop attack is the only thing which could be usefull here BUT!! It uses a spot? which can be critical for any other ability. Escape is so close to the moving buttons anyway so it will be so much easier just to press escape if you want to stop attacking, which doesnt use any slot in the action bars.

So what i can conclude, auto attack is just as worthless as i thoud... stupid to fill out 1 slot with that when you can easily do it any other way, which doesnt use a spot in the action bars so you have more room for your other spells and it will be easier to get everything to fit?...

Start attack = Right click if tanking 1 mob or possibly 2. When AOE tanking you get enough rage to atleast do any ability or else you can just right click a mob as when ur single target tanking (And if you have to move it isnt really hard in any way to right click on a target, even if ur holding right click down to control camera, you just lift it click fast, and bam?...)
Stop Attack = Escape.

[Edgar]

Sometimes it's just nice to see if it's active, seeing as you mostly spam HS which replaces the white hit. If you see the first button blinking you know auto-attack is on.

It's not a dumb thing and it's not a bad thing, it's a thing of preference and some people prefer to have an Auto Attack Spell in their first bar slot.

I know people that do not use the button 3 because they think it is uncomfortable to reach. Some people don't play the good old WASD, some switch over to ESDF or even RDFG, reaching 1 from those positions is sort of uncomfortable so you can put something like auto attack in there.


There are probably millions of reasons why one has AutoAttack in his bar at any given slot, it's just a thing of preference.

[Molohk]

So what i have read now here, is that no offence, the ensidia tanks, top guild tanks are pretty much dumbasses...

You asked for reasons why people use the auto-attack button, and replies gave you those reasons. Whether you agree with those reasons or not is a separate issue. People make different choices depending on their play-style and preferences, that doesn't mean anyone who doesn't think like you is a "dumbass", especially those who have already demonstrated their skill.

It seems like you had made up your mind about it before you posted your question. And BTW, saying "no offense" doesn't really mean anything if you follow it by namecalling.

[Kazeyonoma]

You couldn't possibly know the rest of their keybinds either, what if they don't use your conventionall hand rest over asdw maybe esdf instead? They could likewise be using a gaming keyboard which allows them to move buttons around as they see fit? Calling players who have proven their capabilities dumbasses because you don't know the entire situation makes you seem more the case than them.

Closed