Tanking in general

Is threat fun?

Blizzard, in the developer chat, has asked the tank community for some discussion and feedback on whether threat is fun.

Q. You talk a lot about changing how we [ more...]

The taunt game

Tanks do a lot of taunting off one another. Last week I was reflecting on a post from Chev about taunting. He has tabulated the number of debuffs your fellow [ more...]

Parry-haste confirmed to be mostly off in Icecrown Citadel

Posting here on parry-haste, the proc nerf and following me on Twitter.

The other day I posted about preliminary findings which show ICC has parry-haste mostly turned off for the raid [ more...]

Parry-haste doesn't seem to exist in ICC

1. A clever nerd wrote an addon which checks if the boss you’re fighting has been parry-hasted.

2. Another clever geek wrote a script which parses logs to determine if parry-haste [ more...]

Why I'm jealous of maintankadins

In order:

[Consecration]
[Hammer of the Righteous]
[Holy Shield]
[Holy Wrath]

I used to be a pally tank too, so I know what I’m missing when I do Halls of Reflection: no gaps in the [ more...]

New TankTotals includes new effective health

Progression tanks, before the next wing is opened:

I recommend you get this new version of TankTotals, get familiar with it, give the author some feedback and then use it when [ more...]

Misdirect a volley

Hopefully your hunters know this.

They can misdirect a volley. Thanks QQ for the tip.

Tanks, note this change: you won’t see the misdirect buff until your hunter starts shooting. Have you [ more...]

Pro-tip: plan ahead

There’s a maturity cycle that tanks progress through. One of the marks of a mature, experienced tank is they know the encounters and they plan ahead. Newer tanks are usually [ more...]

Tanks just want to tank, plus supply-demand

To close this series of posts on balance, I wanted to use a few diagrams to outline the problem. This will be my last post on this topic for a [ more...]

Recent GC post on tank balance

Quite a lot of discussion on tank balance, not just pwnwear, wow.com had a (good) post on effective health and also Ghostcrawler’s posted on it.

Here’s an extract from GC, but [ more...]

Are DK tanks being benched?

I hear anecdotal evidence of DK tanks being benched so that our tanking brethren do the business instead. Whilst promoting the rawr:tankDK article in official wow forums, I read a thread [ more...]

Keybinding, do it

A lot has been written about why you should not keyboard turn (it’s too slow), and that you should keybind. I wrote about how PvP improves your raiding too. I’m [ more...]

The 'How do I tank' survey

There’s a game bloggers play where you pass an idea or question from one to another.

Normally, I don’t follow along because I’m stubbornly independent and don’t like being part of [ more...]

Which race for tanking, now you can change?

The race change feature is now available. You can’t create any of the new race/class combinations in Cataclysm, but you can at least change race.

I have already written a detailed [ more...]

Offtank fights and You: your role as OT

In my last column for pwnwear, I discussed the mindset of the DPS DK stepping into the role of OT. Today, I wanted to follow that up with a simple [ more...]

DPS DKs: What happens when your raid needs another Tank?

Here’s a guest post from a reader, who became a regular commenter, then blogger! – G

I AM DPS, HEAR ME ROAR!!!!!
(meow)
I started my wow life as a rogue and loved [ more...]

Worst GUI ever

Oh man, while googling for a screenshot of a paladin tank, I found this disaster of a GUI. Talk about information overload and obscuring vision. See if you can beat [ more...]

Ratio of tanks to the rest

This deserves more discussion. One of the difficult balances a leader has to manage is the number of tanks required in a raid, or the guild, as a proportion of [ more...]

Why do you love tanking?

I was tanking Utgarde Keep on my reroll DK ‘Industry’ earlier. Did it because I saw “LF1M tank, UK” on general chat. I really enjoyed the run. I was in [ more...]

Cataclysm tanking and healing will be more strategic

Two comments from Ghostcrawler recently are clearly pointing at a design change which means we’ll have a more strategic playstyle for Cataclysm tanks and healers.

In Cataclysm:

relative to the damage input [ more...]

Which is best racial for tanks?

Which race has the best abilities for tanking? Which racials help a tank more so than a PvPer or DPSer?

Before DKs were born, I wrote this analysis so I could [ more...]

Warrior 3.2 tank spec, and no more badge gear

Warrior tank specs

I presume any tank reader on my site knows Veneretio well, he’s posted the warrior tanks specs he’s running.

No more badge gear tank upgrades

Last night, I got my [ more...]

Unholy, threat not so bad? (14 comments)
- Suno: I tank as unholy for my 10-man every week. It’s perfectly viable for any current...

Forums at pwnwear (8 comments)
- Gravity: That’s good and well-considered feedback, thanks. I was hesitating about...
- Sagramor: Nice idea. I agree with the ‘personalities̵ 7; of the other sites...
- Gravity: Thanks matey.

Tanking weapons in 3.3 (41 comments)
- Instructions: Don’t forget the extra 80 expertise will also be a nice threat boost…...
- Tarragon: The reason I asked is because I have Ramaladni’s blade and Bryntroll, which are...
- Gravity: I didn’t actually analyse that. Looking at the strike values, you can see that a...

Frost tank spec in 3.3 (61 comments)
- Gravity: yah, never compare your threat to that of a pally. They own threat.
- Instructions: I missed that part! I’m sorry! I think we can totally conclude the following:...
- Vanyana: Thanks for the reply, I don’t really have a problem with threat so I guess I...

Blood tank spec in 3.3 (32 comments)
- Drunknite: Wouldnt GoD be a threat increase? Just thinking about it (haven’t tested) but...

3.3 Death Knight dual-wield tanking (93 comments)
- tiny dk: Im speccing do Frost purely for aoe with main spec blood for raids and was wondering if...

The streamlined newbie experience (6 comments)
- AJ: Much appreciated.
- Gravity: The obvious visuals are from Shadowed Unit Frames plus Dominos, both of which are the...
- AJ: Gravity, this is probably an annoying question, but i have to ask. What UI is that? Now to...

/played (5 comments)
- Instructions: I don’t want to look at this. I think it’d be pathetic to see what...

The end of loser DKs is nigh! (15 comments)
- Wraithwail(caelsetraz): to be quite honest i am tired of nooby people playing the deathknight....

Flask market indicates the beginning of the free epics period (19 comments)
- Gravity: mr robot seems pretty good for deeps, but I managed to crash it the few times I...

Warriors from the swiss army, DKs from lego (16 comments)
- xorellion: So many people are caught up with counting their DPS, not realizing that there’s...
- xorellion: Nothing stings worse than a healer saying “Great.. A DK tank” and leaving...