AoE Threat became a problem

[Stonebinder]

Hey guys,

Last night I ran with a bunch of raiders and much to my dismay I suddenly had horrible AoE threat issues. Now there was always a single-target DPS who sometimes managed to steal some opening threat if they started attacking before I had the mob in position but the AoE issue was a shock to me yesterday because it had not happened before. I fully realise that these guys could do more damage than the usual group I hang out with but I am still wondering if there's something wrong on my end.

Could you fellows be kind enough to give me a few pointers?

I decided to change my spec a little to get 10% extra cleave damage (war academy) but I'm wondering if there might be a problem with it.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...talent/primary (Yes this is my character in case the name confuses people.

My opening on a group of mobs is:

Shield Slam > Rend > Thunderclap> Devastate>Shockwave> anything that procs with Shield Slam as a priority and heroic strike when I have excess rage ( I still keep sunder on 3 stacks of course)

I've been thinking about opening with thunderclap and it was also advised by one of the DPS, but I was always under the assumption that Thunderclap was a low threat ability, simply there to keep the mobs away from the healer during the opening heals. I understand that with rend it does do a bit more threat but according to the DPS I would waste a GCD with rend first.

Any advice you guys can give me?

[Tengenstein]

How often are you tabbing? I know for most of the latter half of Wrath the AoE fest meant that I could forgo tabbing about with sunders and SSs, but that was wrath, this is cata; back to Tabbing every GCD that isn't a Shockwave or a TC tab around. In your ability list you mention HS, I assume you mean Cleave, If not, start cleaving rather than HSing when you have more than one mob you want aggro on.

I personally open with Shockwave as this generally lets me position the mobs without any pathing wierdness and is our highest AoE threat maker. I follow with Rend>TC>demo shout, popping Shield block as the stun wears off, procing revenge then SS, then Keeping TC and Rev on CD, tabbing with with SS/Dev/HT/CB and Cleaving like Saurfang on washday

Get fully enchanted/Gemmed/Glyphed. For AoE threat a Shield Spike is pretty nice.

I don't rate Blood Craze as a decent talent (post nerf), consider dropping points in it for ore threat if you don't feel too squishy.

How are you handling Inner rage, i find due to the nature of our rage dumps only hitting 1-3 targets that I prefer to use Inner rage before Dumping with Cleave or HS, especially in AoE as 15% more damage to SW/TC on 5 or so mobs outweighs a HS/CLeave. I'm lazy. I have IR macroed into SS, Rev and Dev, and a /cancelaura macroed in Battle Shout, Commanding Shout, Spell Reflect, and Shield Bash. It works for me, no doubt it will sound cLuNKy to some but I find it convienent to have an almost passive damage buff and simplifies the mechanic no end, I do track if its up or not with a PowaAura.

Also what exactly are you AoEing down? I recall a Blue Post from GC msaying something along the lines of "if its meant to be AoE'd down its probably going to be a hectic, and we don't expect the tank to hold aggro on everything, but we aren't going to have packs that need to be AoE'd need to be 100% tanked, becuase they won't hit like marrowgar"

[Pyorrhea]

I can agree with Tengenstein on using IR as it is a solid DPS/Threat increase. Blood Craze impo is not that great.

As far as spec goes, you might want to try the following : http://www.wowhead.com/talent#LG0cZZcrGdRRodbu

There is still 2 points to spend, unfortunately there is no more AoE threat talents to spend it on.

My personal spec : http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lent/secondary

This spec is balanced for Single and Multiple target threat. For raids you might want to consider Speccing AoE or Single if you are not able to sustain Threat with this spec, depending on your role. I still have to test this for Raids tho.

I am not having any AoE or Single target threat yet, but I can see with DPS increasing that it could become a problem. I am sitting between 24k - 30k TPS with Vigilance on highest threat DPS. Also, I mark 1st Mob to DPS and refreshing Skull on new Mob if previous one has died.

If you are specced for Blood and Thunder and Tunder Struck then be sure to use TC regularly and keep Rend from rolling off mobs. Build up Thunder Struck to x3 stacks and use Shockwave. IF you are not doing this you might as well drop the 2 points in Thunderstruck as this will make this talent a white elephant.

Hope you can use some of what I stated here, gl and hf.

[Fledern]

Running with trigger happy dps i find the below opener better for aoe pulls

- charge & rend (if you time it well, the rend will strike just as you finish your charge)
- thunderclap
- shockwave
- shieldslam on the skull target
- thunderclap

this usually ensures i have full aggro. Liberal use of shield reflect with packs that have caster mobs. Them mobs hitting themselves for 10K is really good threat

[scotty]

i pretty much agree with fledern i only have a few things to add though, make sure you either use commanding shout or battle shout before you charge in, and if i have the rage i pretty much spam cleave.

and if your have'n problems with trigger happy DPS pulling before you do, just ask them not to attack till you thunder clap.

[JollyWarrior]

Liberal use of shield reflect with packs that have caster mobs. Them mobs hitting themselves for 10K is really good threat

dont forget the 60 rage gained from reflecting a spell