Tanking 10 Mans - Expertise Cap Or Not?

[Havik24]

I'm main tank of my guild's core group, which is 12/12 in normals, and we just started doing heroic modes three weeks ago.

We're 4/12 HM and currently working on Maloriak. I was tanking with 20 expertise,
(I could have hit 26 but my avoidance seemed to drop pretty low if I did), because our fury warrior pulls insane threat on the initial pull but after that there are usually no problems.

I've upgraded to some heroic pieces and my expertise is down to 14 now. My question is should I try to aim for the expertise cap in 10 mans or will I ultimately lose too much avoidance?

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...3%A2vik/simple

[klausi]

You got assistance from hunter/rogue/druid/mage? Is it only your fury warrior conquering for threat heavily? In that case just have him holding back for the first seconds and pulling recklessness during the last 10 seconds of deathwish and not during the first.

[Havik24]

We have a hunter who does MD me usually unless he's asked not to, two druids (balance & resto) and a mage. I do taunt when the Mage climbs up the charts but it seems the fury war just blows up Omen.

[Gohnk]

If you're gearing to stay on top of threat in those first 20 seconds because a fury warrior is riding you hard then you're both doing something wrong. Generally, you should be gearing for survival and the dps should be doing their job and watching their threat, right?

[Mazzy]

no need for masive DPS at the start of the fight. we had to stop DPS at 30% and wait for 2. green phase.

he wants to look good on meters. but it is just bad play. the adds need to go down fast not the boss "100-20%"

[Unger]

I agree. When we first started working on this fight, our arms warrior rended, tclapped and then bladestormed.... that equaled a dead warrior.

The key was to have him hold off until you get rend on everything and are starting to kite them. Once you have them all rounded up, you can throw vigilance on him (as the MT isnt getting hit technically) and taunt back if he grabs anything.

That particular fight has a LOT of damage on the OT with the Adherents, especially when you have 9 of them up. Of course, you want to kite as best as you can so to not take damage, but survivability is an issue. I wouldnt stack threat stats in exchange of mitigation or avoidance on this boss.

[Outbackjack]

Using your own tools (Intervene) plus the raid's (Hand of Salvation on your over-eager DPS, Tricks, MD, etc) and a gentle reminder to let you gather up the adds will go much further in this fight for you than sacrificing your avoidance/mitigation to add Expertise to your gear.

[Fetzie]

The only things that need to die quickly are the blobs and the abberrations. to put it into perspective we have to stop boss dps at 29-30% about halfway through the first phase after the second black phase. Damage on the boss really isn't going to be a big problem if you can get the adds dead fast enough.

[klausi]

On Maloriak: You are the add tank you tell them when they can start dps'ing (regulary after the second thunderclap). We have so much aoe nowadays and need to wait ages until the next phase starts there's no reason in getting overeager. You can even still continue dps during the beginning of the next phase, it takes quite some time (~ 20 seconds) until someone gets frozen or he's actually casting his flame breath.

Playing at your edge and playing with your poor teammates nerves are two different things

[Banterloft]

When I first moved from Prot to Fury I was just tearing threat off the tanks. I can't remember who suggested it but I wait until the second run of my rotation to pop DW and Reck. My numbers didn't drop at all, my CDs weren't screwed and I was able to let the tank establish aggro.

I will say that my tanks have to be ready for me on the pull and they know that. They pop wings, inner rage, H Throw before their charge, all that good jazz but once they have established its all good.

I spend most of the fight floating at around 85% threat when the pull happens correctly and I monitor what the hell I'm doing. But in our 10man I'm fury tanking Mal anyhow.