Mahler's guide to being a better tank.
Lesson #1: Awareness
In many encounters, the difference between being a so-so tank and being a fantastic tank is situational awareness (this is where, in my opinion, the skill of any raider is tested, but much more so with tanking.) A tank who is aware not only of himself, but of the raid as a whole, is in a better position than any other member of the raid to ensure a succesful run.
When considering awareness in any encounter, there are a couple of key points to remember:
- The Enemy: Most tanks are aware of their own target, abilities that might be used against them, incomming phase changes, that sort of thing. Where a tank can learn to excel is by being aware not only of your own target, but any other targets in the raid. For instance, let's say your Off-Tank is supposed to grab 4 adds while you grab the main boss, but on the pull your off-tank only manages to pick up 3 of the 4 adds. By being aware of the raid as a whole, and not simply focused on your target, you would be able to pick up the 4th add and hold it just long enough for your OT to nab it. This avoids the add from running rampart throughout the raid, whacking on healers and squishy DPS, which could potentially cause a wipe.
- Positioning: Let's face it: Unless you have the luxury of running with a regular group and have a team who are miraculously self-aware, you're going to have people who 'stand in the fire.'. You're going to have times where the melee DPS gets too excited about being on top of the meters that they don't notice the overload about to happen, or you'll have healers who get tunnel vision and stand in flaming cinders. A mediocre tank would worry only about his own positioning (and by god, if you don't know where you're supposed to be, go read up the fight before trying to tank it.). A better tank would make sure he/she knew where his teammates where. Watching out for those healers (or those DPS) and reminding them in vent when they're in the fire could save your ass in the long run.
- The Future: The most important part of tank awareness. If you're 30 seconds into a fight, you should already be anticipating what will be happening at the 1 minute mark. If Onyxia is hovering at 45%, your mind should already be preparing for her to land for phase 3, making sure you're good on HP, your whelps are getting taken care of, and that you're ready to get into the right position. It means watching the HP on those adds with Emalon and knowing that, because of the overzealous DPS, one of them is going to die and spawn an add, which you need to be prepared to pick up along with the other add which will spawn to replace the overcharged add you guys are about to kill. It means being ready for the soft enrage at 30%. Surprises will always, inevitably, happen. But being caught by surprise can throw you off for the rest of the encounter, and make your tanking experience more like trying desperately to keep ahold of a bucking bull. Preparedness for these eventuailites allows you to recognize and eliminate them, before they becomae a bigger problem.
