[Guardian] [Video] Constructive criticism request

[cryptonight 0]

 

Hi! I'm an old resto druid (wotlk) returning to WoD. Meddled in previous expansions, but none caught my fancy. Tried doing resto in WoD, but it's too different to my personal "glory days".

 

Anyway, thought I'd try tanking with bear. I've spent a few hours practising today, first on training dummy at Stormwind getting basic rotation down. made my own rotation helping script using weakauras - that's what you see in the vid, the left one is single target, right one is multi target. I wasn't happy with Ovale, it's buggy (for me) in it's depiction of hotkeys. Then I practised for a couple hours on the Silver proving ground.

 

I tried to stick with the Icy-Veins recommendations as much as possible, and I managed to do the silver challenge somewhat regularly now, but I'm not particularly happy and am not that confident. I basically do silver proving grounds by ignoring the spellcaster, and I dunno, I feel as if I'm using some sort of cheap loophole rather than good tanking technique. I thought I'd record myself and post here, hopefully I can gain some useful tips on what I'm doing wrong, and stuff I can do to improve.

 

My gear is pretty horrific (Can examine it at end of video if you're keen, it's ilvl 617), I realise, but I'm more looking for tips on overall aspect of tanking / using bear. I personally obsess with gear too much when I get into it, I spend hours and hours making lists on what to get and from where etc etc, so I'm trying to focus on actual tanking and rotation for the time being.

 

I also struggle with multi-target tanking. I seem to have troubles getting threat really quickly. I tanked with pally in Cataclysm/MoP dungeons for a few weeks, and I found Pally multi-target tanking very intuitive and effective, but with bear, I'm sort of struggling. I'm 100% sure i'm doing something wrong, because I watched a few bear videos, and they get aggro on multi targets instantly. Wtf am I doing wrong?

 

Your constructive criticism is much appreciated!

[asakawa 0]

It's very difficult to get much from your video to be honest, as your UI hides a lot of the buffs and things that I would normally be looking for. 

 

However, some things from spending a couple of minutes watching:

• You seem to be using Barkskin on Cooldown - this is better than never using it but generally a waste.
• I don't see Survival Instincts on your bars. Either you're not using it at all or you have it macro'd in, both of which aren't ideal - It's an amazing ability and one that other tanks are jealous of. 
• You're often sitting on Tooth and Claw procs for a long time. My guess is that this is a shortfall in your UI setup and it looks like your WA (or whatever addon is doing those two icons) is prioritising things above it and rarely showing it. Since Maul is off the GCD you're wasting procs and wasting Rage.
• And that leads to the next point, you don't seem to be using Frenzied Regen - I might be wrong but after watching the action button for a while I never saw it flicker. You're often sitting on a lot of rage and not max health, and it's also off the GCD. 
• You don't use Berserk - This buff gives you massive amounts of damage (AoE too) and massive amounts of Rage which equals health through FR. It's both a DPS and Threat and Healing ability. Don't overlook it!

 

Essentially it seems like your UI is letting you down and fixing that, then some practice to fold that information into your play, will improve things a lot.

The main part of my tanking UI are these Weak Auras: 

I use the method of things hiding when I don't need to see them so this isn't how busy it looks in combat, it might look more like this for example:

But the important bit is keeping you informed about everything you could need to know in a way that isn't restrictive.

 

In the above image I know that Mangle can be used and that is top priority. I know that I have a T&C charge but Maul is currently on cooldown. I know that Berserk is available and that Cenarion Ward is available but it's not flashing which means I have less than 150% Resolve (not worth using yet). I also know I have Barkskin and two charges of SI if I need them. I know I have two out of three stacks of Lacerate up and 2 charges of Savage Defence (but not enough Rage to actually use it yet).

 

I'm obviously not suggesting you make your UI look like this but this should give you an idea of all the things that you want to be informed about, moment-to-moment, in combat. 

 

Regarding the Proving Grounds, it's not ideal to be leaving the casters to nuke your healer but it's a valid strategy to let someone else tank something that you know they can survive and you can't. The ability to think like that instead of the common attitude of "Me tank. Me taunt everything!" is useful in raids where you have at least two tanks. However, I don't think it's true that you couldn't survive pulling the caster mobs as well, I think you just need to use the full array of abilities at your disposal. 

 

Remember that you can't dodge magic attacks so your SD uptime (along with T&C procs) does nothing for you against the caster. But FR heals damage from them very nicely. Meanwhile you can save Barkskin for those moments and always have SI available if your health is still on a downward slope. 

 

Hope there's something useful to you in all this rambling. 

All the best!

Edited May 22, 2015 by asakawa

[cryptonight 0]

that was awesome! thanks soo much for that "ramble", it was super helpful.

 

I was sorta aware that maul was off global cd, but didn't know frenzied regen was off global cd as well. Will take out both maul and frenzied regen from the priority system, and put them as separate icons, so i can use when health less than 100 and as rage dumps.

 

re: survival instincts, lol, I looked for it yesterday, but I musth ave missed it in spellbook, I thought it was a talent or something. Anyway, had another look, found it. Will be using it for sure .

 

I used berserk right at end only, as a way to burn. Should i use it on cooldown? or is it still more situational, but should be used more often? in any case, I'll be sure to pay more attention to it. I've used berserk in kitty form a lot, so I guess I'm used to having it as a massive dps tool. Didn't really think of it in terms of linking with FR --> therefore heals etc. thanks for pointing that out!

 

As a last question, with my current gear, is it feasible to get gold proving ground? ie should i set that as my target in order to improve as a bear, or would I be wasting time?

 

thanks for the tips! I might do another one, this time i'll try and have a bit more info in UI so I can gain even more tips hehe. I generally don't like having too much info, because I prefer to pay attention to what's happening and all the obvious bad stuff I should be avoiding etc. It's not always easy when you're new to doing something! haha

[asakawa 0]

Ah I missed your Berserk use. If you're used to it as Feral then you'll probably already have a good feel for when to use it. In BRF there's a couple of fights where I save it for specific things (burning down Men-at-arms on thogar, Wolves on Kag'raz, Pillars on Kromog etc. ) but, yeah, if in doubt just use it with Hero and on cooldown from then. 

 

Gold is doable. Pretty sure I did it at that ilvl or less, though I admit there were a couple of times when I taunted and then ran away, kiting the mobs while the healer killed them. Strategic Cowardice!

Seriously though, it's a totally viable way to handle some of the waves. The healing panda does the vast majority of the actual damage and getting some distance and avoiding a few hits often gives the HoTs on you time to get you back to full again. Displacer Beast might be worth taking for this reason - yes it pulls you into Cat form (until 6.2?) but it takes you far enough away that you have plenty of time to get back into Bear before they catch you. 

[Pinkis 12]

Hello. I'm not much of a bear expert, but I've done endless tank PG 30+ waves back in MoP. Haven't done more than silver in WoD, but I did it in 2nd try (I failed due to some dumb mistake, like misclicking or sth). I've done this in like 600 or so, as gear is not sth that matters - mobs are scaled by your ilvl. Furthermore PG is a goos practice, but it differs from real fights. Mostly because as asakawa said - you have to kite. Whole point is to keep mobs away from panda, and you can do like 0 dps - she will manage waves by herself. Gold and lower is about knowing how to utilize your class to deal with adds, and endless is about memorizing waves. This is not something to help about your tanking but about PGs :)