Technique Theory -- Questions from a clueless longtimer

Fellow Tanks,

I've been reading this site since WotLK came out and I hit lvl 80. The only reason I know anything about tanking is primarily at your feet. Still, I am learning yet about the techniques of tanking.

There is the theory behind specs, glyphs, and gear, but I am having a hard time finding much in the way of actual theory behind play. So those are the areas in which I'd like to incite discussion.

TARGETING

How do each of you do this?

I have two primary ways of managing targets:
1. Click target (yes, still a clicker)
2. Attack button (Blizz standard attack button in my spellbook)

Still, I am finding these wholly inadequate. Luckily, since I'm a pally, I can get a lot of threat on adds just using my spells. Still, I sometimes have a hard time retargeting mobs or quickly switching from a now-dead mob to my next target.

I'll address the first: Let's say I am tanking a group of 3 or more mobs. Further ahead is another group of mobs that have not yet been pulled (or are out of range). I down the first main target and then my character sits there. Auto-attack is off. I just keep getting walloped unless I do something.

So what are my options?

1. I can click on the next target. This can get a bit hairy if you have melee DPS in the mix, or if you click a corpse instead, or if you just have a lot happening on your screen.

This seems to be the least optimal method (and I think most will agree).

2. Attack Button - Blizzard style. This works most of the time. Still, I'd rather not rely on "most of the time." Sometimes this does not pick up the next closest target. In fact, sometimes it will pick up the other group off in the distance and out of range, leaving the immediate group still beating on me.

I am not sure how the Blizz button works. I always assumed it worked like TAB targeting (target nearest enemy) and added the attack command. I have looked but have not seen much clarifying this.

Regardless, it does not appear to be optimal.

3. Trigger Autoattack by using an ability. This works quite well, normally. Of course, the ability has to be off cooldowns. And your GCD can't be rolling. (Speaking of, I think the GCD affects the Blizz Attack button too.)

This seems to be a bit more reliable in some ways than either of the other two options, but still less than perfect.

4. Macro use. I tried this, but I am not sure my macros were doing what I wanted. In the end I went back to the Blizz button. I am going to work on making another macro now that I understand macros a bit more.

From what I figure, this macro will need to do the following:
1. Target closest enemy target
2. The target must be alive, otherwise target next closest enemy (sometimes I seem to target corpses)
3. Start attacking target
4. Usable during a GCD

All of this leads to the next point:

TAB TARGETING

I know warriors have to do this, and I am beginning to think this might be helpful in some situations for my Pallytank. (I.E. A bad PUG keeps ignoring kill order, or otherwise pulls things out of wack by early pulls or bad threat management.)

So, how does one do this? Simply hitting TAB to target closest enemy and then getting a threat hit in, then TAB and on to next?

Does TAB work better than Attack at picking closest? Does it cycle through? Should I use positioning to help facilitate cycling, or would it work just standing there?

Honestly, I pull enough threat so far with AoE attacks that this has not been a problem -- but I can see it being one, and plus I think it would make me a better tank to understand and know the skill.

TARGET SWITCHING

I've run Heroic Nexus the most, so I will use fights from Nexus as examples.

Two fights have the boss split: Telestra and Anomalus.

These fights can require my to switch off the main mob quickly and target accurately.

Embarrassingly, I am not so good at this. Luckily, these are not really difficult fights and it tends not to be a serious problem.

Are there good ways to do this? Would "assist" macros work well for this? Or should I just unclutter my UI (because shouldn't the tank be the main one to choose the targets in these Heroics)?

Which leads to my next point of technique:

INFORMATION ONSCREEN

What information is the most important on screen?

Theory about gear and skills and rotations is all well and good, but what information is most needed for today's average tank?

I use XPerl (which I tend to like). I also focus the healer so I can monitor the healer's health. (Keeping in mind the old axiom: If the healer dies, it's the tank's fault . . .)

I am looking at cleaning up my UI (I will try and post an image later). Still, I suffer from the "Oh, I can't get rid of that!" problem. (Also why I tend to max out my bank slots . . . grrrr)

So what information do you folks feel is the most important?

I try and keep a threat meter up (Omen), and my party info. Other than that, I'm not sure where to go.

Anyhow, questions from worse than a newb -- a clueless longtimer. Server downtime is great!

Sincerely,
Thiery of Zangarmarsh

P.S. Thanks to Maintankadin and its tips, my not entirely well-geared Pally tank has impressed quite a few PUGs. I'm not sure if its because I'm good, or all the other tanks on my server are that bad . . .

What I do is to show health bars (V key) and click them. I work through the kill order, and don't go out of my way to hold aggro on anything that isn't the primary target (obviously I keep it off the healer, but any DPS who choose to hit it can go whistle unless we're AOEing). When I want to trigger autoattack, I do it with an ability, or right click if I have HS/Consecrate up in my rotation.

As far as information goes... Just make a UI that shows what you want.
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If you shoot Anthony several hundred times with an anti-tank rifle whilst he is stabbed to death by a squad of ninja monkeys, he will be dead.

OK?

i have my marks bound to shift f1-f8 - f1 being skull. It's become second nature to hit shift f1 when switching to a new target. That's my kill target

Clicking to target isn't wrong (the "bad" stereotype of being a "clicker" is in reference to clicking on abilities and skills on the action bar). it's the only way to specifically select a particular target by sight. i do recommend using the "V" nameplate method as mentioned previously - it helps a lot in close combat situations, not to mention it allows you to select whichever target you want even when they're all stacked up on one another (nameplates don't overlap, so you can ALWAYS click on one although they can move around a bit if they're being finicky).

in trash situations, tab targeting isn't a bad way to cycle through things - i like to rotate around to keep hotr hitting different targets in a 4+ mob pull, thats the way i do it. it doesn't always work, but if you pass by a target through tab targeting, shift tab seems to (usually) bring up the target you just cycled past.

auto-attack (default "T") isn't really necessary one one's hotbar...some people keep it there (the ONE benefit i see to it is the fact that it blinks when it's "on") but otherwise a bunch of our abilities *start* auto attack itself. judgement i know for a fact activates it (i also know that hotr does *not*...i need to remember to macro that in), which takes care of it in most cases. if you find yourself not attacking: judge, press t, hit the button on your action bar, or even easier...right click your target!

i would recommend for the most part right clicking your enemy targets that you plan on attacking...the only reason not to would be to avoid attacking cc, but thats not usually an issue at this point in wrath. after they die or if you have to switch targets mid combat, use clicking with name plates (again right clicking so you always keep up your auto attack) or tab targeting if you're in the thick of things.

lastly: macros - great for specific fights, but not for everything. best example for me was for illidari council back in BT... /tar Veras /cast Avenger's Shield. use macros for critical targeting that you absolutely need to target...great for picking up specific adds on certain fights, but you usually need to plan ahead for them.



for addons and the like - i'm a huge fan of Grid...compact, adaptable...i use it equally as well in 5 mans as i do 25 mans and 40 man WG raids. I also utilize a HUD (icehud) so I basically don't need a custom UI mod. I stick with aguf just for the focus and focus' target frames.

I also recommend a "click to cast" mod, which allows you to bind spells and/or macros to a mouse click...I have it set up for alt+left click to be RD, since i mostly use it to taunt off healers etc that i can see have aggro. also useful for cleanse, bops, SS, etc.

Omen is a necessity in my books...and pally power. a bar mod that tracks cooldowns is also quite useful. anything else, however, tends to be just gravy... I could live without, but i love mods ^_^ oh yeah, don't forget tankadin!!!!!

a mostly up to date version of what i use...i upgraded computers a few days ago, so its a bit scaled up since.
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For mods I like "targetingIcons" Adds the marks above the mobs portrait so all you have to do is click on which ever one you want to mark the mob.

Although I always have Omen up while instancing, I find that the only time I really look at it is during boss fights (I usually put it way down in the bottom right corner of the screen). Having DPS toons I figure its their job to make sure they use argo dumps or back off if they are getting close.

I also love IceHUD. Keeps my health/mana and the mobs health/mana/castbar right in the center of the screen.

And I would say that Deadly Boss Mods or BigWigs are also a necessity.

For trash I usually will only judge at the start of fighting each mob, so it is usually up when its time to switch, and then unles there is a particular kill order I just "TAB" and judge. Otherwise I right-click if I want a particular mob.
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Bellic - 70
Greymane

Personally, auto-attack is the first thing to come off my action bar at level 1 of any character I create. I right click the mob I want to hit, and it auto-attacks that mob for me.

In a dense pack of mobs w/ a rogue, hunter pet and fury warrior all up front, as well as some totems and some corpses, your right, this doesn't work. For those situations, I tab to the mob I want, and judge. Judgement always starts auto-attack.

This is certainly not the most elegant system, but after so many years of using it, I rarely run into problems anymore.
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I always play with nameplates switched on, and click them when there are too many adds. Just WTB a number for average FPS higher than 8-12, so that I can be more effective Tab-switching is somewhat inefficient to me, because sometimes it uses some strange behavior and switches to the mob I like to target the least
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Targetting is my biggest issue after tanking for this long. I mash tab and click on name plates primarily. I still eff up a lot. I love simpleraidtarget addon for marking. or simpleraidtargeticons or something like that. Its ridiculous how much this makes marking easier.

The way that I use tab is basically during massive trash pulls if I can see on my raid frames that someone has aggro I can do two things...1. I can click the player (or make my mouseover macro finally) and righteous defense them or 2. I can smash tab til I see a mob targetting someone who isnt a tank and I can Hand of reckoning/RD them. You just have to get used to stopping when you get to the right mob instead of cycling past them in which case you've just wasted a lot of time.

But I think tab basically goes to the nearest mob in front of you, but then begins to cycle so you can shift tab (which ive never tried) to go back in the cycle rather than all the way through mobs that might not even be aggroed yet.
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Nameplates + MTLove 2.

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/mtlove-2.aspx

You can quickly mouse over a bunch of bars and see if anything is not targeting you. This isn't quite as necessary now with the built-in aggro meter, but it was godly back in Hyjal.
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I am lazy I use Nameplates and Tab.

I only have Skull keybound, and it is on T.
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I am fucking awesome.

i have raid markers bound to F1 to F4 so i can easily mark and re-mark on the fly. turning the health bars or nameplates or w/e it's called with V (control+V for me) is a necessity imo because you can directly pick out the target you want and, unless it's a huge group, will always get what you want. as for targeting i use tab and click depending on the situation. if it's an aoe pull i just tab, but if it's skull+friends, i'll click it.

also here's a simple macro to help with a few things.