Help a tank in need?

[rcommee]

My fellow Powertechs, I am in need of some advice.

 

 

Let me first say that I've played several MMOs for several years but this is my first shot at tanking. So far I am a level 31 PT full on shield tech spec with ok-ish gear. I recently had my first test with tanking Cademimu and Mandalorian Raiders. Cade was kinda hectic but MR went smoothly. We successfully completed both runs, but it's just...I don't feel confident.

 

I use ion cylinder (of course) and I put Guard on the healer, but I'm not sure what abilities generate the best threat, and in what priority I should use them. I typically start with DfA if it's off CD followed by Missle Blast or Jet Charge lone champs/elites, then just spam FB and FT. I do the AoE taunt whenever it's off CD and I don't have them all rounded up, and I use the single taunt for the stragglers.

 

But where my issue was, like in Cade, for example, was that I felt overwhelmed by the shear number of mobs I was having to wrangle up. It was hard to keep track of what mobs were actually engaging us (lots of ranged guys shooting from miles away) and who they are attacking.

 

I was wondering if you tanks out there had some tips for me? Like threat management and how to stay aware of the situation?

 

Any advice would be wonderful!

 

 

 

TL;DR

New tank needs advice.

[AetherMcLoud]

Don't use the AOE taunt on cooldown. Use it when you need to because your healer or a squishy dps took AOE aggro from you.

 

DfA as you know is lots of AOE threat. After that use the Explosive Dart and Flamethrower which both do good AOE damage, and after that the Flame AOE (I'm at work and don't remember the exact skill names right now).

 

For AOE packs I usually just start with Death from Above, then Jet Jump to the one with the highest health, put an Explosive Dart on him and then spam the Flame AOE until I'm overheated. Use Flamethrower in between when the mobs are nicely rounded up so the cone attack hits most of them.

 

With this tactic I pretty much never lost AOE aggro.

 

Also, don't forget to use the Flame AOE at least once for every mob pack at the start of the fight to put the -4% damage debuff on all of them.

Edited January 13, 2012 by AetherMcLoud

[Illusory]

You most likely did fine. Things get better once you get jet-charge and are able to be first on the mobs. While leveling, i often had the problem that Marauders would leap at the mobs before i got there, and then spent the rest of the fight trying to peel them off them.

 

Try to educate your group towards killing mobs from easy low hp > tougher mobs.

IE. normals > silver > golds.

 

Normal mobs are affected by stuns and such that acompany a lot of player abilities so they wont kill your group if they are taken down first. If you focus on Gold and Silver type mobs while trying to grab a few normals as well you will be fine.

 

If you get a group where the one DPS goes 'waaahooo' on the Gold star mob, while the other is unloading on the silver mob that is 20m in your back before you even got a chance to hit the mob once, there really isn't much you can do, except taunt and hope the mob is dead before it runs back to DPS #2.

Talk to them or try find a better group. We are tanks, not miracle workers

 

Open with Death from Above whenever it is available unless you know that a certain pull will spawn additional adds after you engage and there is no clicky bomb around to help you grab the extra adds.

 

Most groups generally move quite quickly through trash so Death from Above will not always be available. Later on you can alternate with jet-charge > carbonize > flame sweep or flamethrower and use grapple to pull in that loose end add that is standing a bit off to the side.

[Badlok]

Also, I find it much more useful to Guard the highest damage DPS rather than the healer. Of course this could be fight dependant, but so far it works out much better in my experience.

[chainsawsamurai]

Also, I find it much more useful to Guard the highest damage DPS rather than the healer. Of course this could be fight dependant, but so far it works out much better in my experience.

 

This has been my experience as well. At low levels throwing Guard on the healer works fine and seems like the natural choice, but aggro doesn't seem to scale as quickly as DPS beyond 40. Guard on your highest DPS will save you a lot of heartache.

 

Edit: Highest DPS or squishiest high DPS. If you have a Powertech or Marauder DPS they can take more hits than an Assassin for example and are more likely to survive the few seconds they will have aggro. It is also preferable to put it on Melee instead of Ranged since current speculation points towards Ranged needing to surpass the Tank's threat by a larger margin to pull aggro (as is fairly common in most MMOs).

Edited January 13, 2012 by chainsawsamurai

[Kalikin]

When you say FB your talking about Flame burst? Is that what i should be spamming the most?

 

I usually, DFA, AOE explosion dart, Flame thrower. and i spam the explosion dart. Throwing in Rocket punch and Rail shot when they are up. do i need to be spaming Flame burst instead of explosion dart (the one that explodes on impact.)

[Kalikin]

When you say FB your talking about Flame burst? Is that what i should be spamming the most?

 

I usually, DFA, AOE explosion dart, Flame thrower. and i spam the explosion dart. Throwing in Rocket punch and Rail shot when they are up. do i need to be spaming Flame burst instead of explosion dart (the one that explodes on impact.)

[AetherMcLoud]

Since it has a cooldown you cannot spam Exposion dart by definition

[Raynn]

FB will make your heat go way up and its not really cost effective in the dmg to heat ratio. The only time you realy want to use it is when you need the dmg debuff on whatever mob you're tankin (be aware flame sweep will also apply debuff to all enemies around you). Rocket punch is your go to move for single trgt threat. With hard hitting dmg upfront and a guarantee hat IGC will proc, you cant pass it up. I also comes off CD whenever you shield an attack. Use it and love it.

 

At higher levels tank threat seems a little screwy on all tank classes. In our HM Ops the tanks have had to rotate their single trgt taunt into their rotation just to keep some dps from ripping things off them (this can be avoided if dps waits until tank builds aggro and then uses their threat dropping abilities properly, but we all know getting dps to comply to an intelligent decision can be a waste of time).

 

And use your guard on a dps instead of a healer. Healz don't draw near as much threat as the guy blasting off 6k crits while drooling in ecstasy at their 'leet' dps, totally oblivious their standing in the death dealing green crap.

 

Try to use explosive dart as much as ou can, because its basically a fire and forget with AOE dmg. Flame thrower is awesome no matter if your single trgt or mob tanking. The 3 sec cast time negates much of the heat cost for this move. Unload is great for holding threat on those mobs outside your immediate rng. I use it if graple is down just to keep a lone mob from turning on the healz with his range attack.

 

Tanking is challenging right now in this game because once dps gets truly geared the extra 50% to threat from tanking stances is negligible at best. Do the best you can and save that AOE taunt for when things go crazy.

 

PS: Oil slick saves lives. Talented, it puts a 20% accuracy debuff on all mobs around you for 20 seconds. If you don't think thats alot of mitigation then you havent seen it in action yet.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Paralassa
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