Defensive Stance

[Ynir]

Spangles' small guild recently merged with a big raiding guild, and now she finds herself learning the role of main tank. I posted these comments on the guild forum.


Main Tank
A warrior can hold aggo best on mobs that he pulls. This works in open areas like strat/baron. Lots of talk helps: who will sap what, who will sheep what, who will seduce what, who will shackle what, who is ready, who is not. Lighten up, please. Two hours of quiet tension is not fun.

Only one puller. Most of the wipes I've seen start with simultaneous pulls from different directions.

Casters hold off until the tank locks aggro. A tank cannot compete for aggro with a caster on a pull.

Does the tank make a priority of going for mob casters that stay behind after a pull, nuking the raid?

If a hunter pulls, should the tank follow the pet?

Is it useful for a tank to face the mob from the back, and turn the mob around so that assists come from the back? I heard that attacks from the front and back do more damage than multiple attacks from the same direction, but I don't know for sure.


It seems to me that the job of main tank in a raid, to lock and hold the heaviest mobs from a pull to keep them off the casters, is what defense stance was made for, if it was made for anything at all. I like using the power to turn a mob around and face me while the assists beat it up from behind.

Our guild is big enough to hold weekly pvp contests in the SV arena, and we will report on how the defense warrior holds up on the trial battleground.