How to tank versus great Damage Dealers?
(I got inspired by a fantastic answer on a thread on reddit by âTheLostTacticianâ to significantly improve this section, the credits of structuring this section thus goes well to TheLostTactician)
Letâs assume that the chosen Vanguard Build has no survival issues and a decent amount of offensive stats allocated (mainly Power and Combat Advantage) in a way that one can be happy with the chosen build. Stats aside, the Vanguard path has quite a few tools to maintain the lead on the Threat table. Letâs recall them:
Powers that state âincreased Threatâ in their tooltip. The At-Will Power Threatening Rush, the Encounter Power Shield Throw with the Feat Shield Thrower, the Encounter Power Linebreaker (mostly for AOE situations only) and the Fighter Mechanic Retaliate have it. They all generate 8 3 times more Threat which gets multiplied with the Path of the Vanguard Mechanic of value 15! Thus one Linebreaker with 350 Magnitude deals compared to a well equipped damage dealer not much damage, but its Threat generated equals 45x the amount of damage inflicted (15*3, ignoring other buffs to the Threat generated)! These are the bread and butter Powers for tanking (Shield Throw only when feated, otherwise use a different power. Not taking feated Shield Throw is viable).
Retaliate: One of the strongest hitting powers for a short cooldown of 10 seconds. Can be used to get aggro on mobs attacking you. Use Dig In, take the attack and then release your Dig In to trigger Retailite. Learn to use it!
Threatening Rush: Use this as an At-Will in between your Encounter Powers whenever you fear a loss of aggro. A great gap closer too!
Linebreaker: Can be used on whole mob groups to get aggro on mobs. Due to being a cone attack, it often happens that a mob is not hit. Using the Ring of Condemned overshadows this Power though.
Shield Throw with the Feat Shield Thrower: Great power for initiating mob fights and boss fights. On mob fights use it on the most dangerous one. Sometimes 1 Shield Throw is even enough to hold aggro on a small mob until the fight is done. Can be used while running!
If you lose aggro then you have another two Powers coping with it, which state âplacing yourself at the top of their threat listâ: Enforced Threat (AOE) and Anvil of Doom (ST) with the Feat Anvil of Challenge. When used any lost aggro can be immediately regained. It multiplies the current leading Thread value by 1.11 if one loses aggro and wonât do anything when already maintaining aggro. Due to its lower cooldown and the added debuff to Enforced Threat that increases the incoming damage on the enemy, there are only a few trial situations where Anvil of Doom (ST) with the Feat Anvil of Challenge will be taken instead of Enforced Threat. Notice though, that it doesnât force the enemy to attack you for some time, thus aggro can be lost immediately if the damage dealers unleash their bursts. If you wonder why the enemies are still not attacking you, then it is probably because of that reason. Using it at the beginning of Fight does not generate much Threat, because 0 Threat *1.11 is still 0!
Besides these Powers two Gear choices are able to generate serious amounts of Threat:
Darklake Ward Ring, Stalwartneedle Ring of Celerity and Ring of Condemned +5: While active this Ring generates 25 000 Threat every 0.5 to all enemies in a range of 20â-30â. This Threat is then multiplied with all Threat modifiers: Imagine it as you would deal 750 000+ damage as a damage dealer every second! It activates after 1 second on running and it will stay active while running. Notice though, that you shall not ignore the other Powers stated above. Especially Retaliate should not be ignored for the sake of keeping the Ring active! (At least in most boss fights).
Manticoreâs Mane Bite: This set bonus deals 50% of your current maximum Hit Points (including temporary Hit Points buffs) on daily use to the next attacker as piercing damage which is multiplied by all Threat modifiers. It can regularly deal over several hundreds of thousand damage, resulting in millions of Threat. This bonus synergizes well with Second Wind: Not only does Second Wind increase your Hit Points by 20% and thus deals more damage and Threat, it also generates Threat with the heals you generate! Other Daily Powers do not synergize but can still be better if there is barely any incoming damage or by not needing more Threat!
Now that all important Powers and Bonis are restated, letâs take a look at how to efficiently put it to use! One note must be raised before going to all the details:
Holding aggro gets easier the longer the fights are going on because the Threat numbers get so high in the long run that the damage and the 11% from Enforced Threat will keep the tank on top of the list. The biggest problem is short after the beginning of the fight when the dps unleash their damage on the artifact calls. To cope with that Fighters must prepare to deal a ton of damage and Threat.
The steps for initiating fights can vary slightly but are in most cases the same:
Initiate the fight and position the boss properly. An initiation may include using Bull Charge, Shield Throw or Threatening Rush. In many easy fights there is no positioning needed and one can start to deal tons of damage. However in fights like the second boss of Infernal Citadel or the Vault of Stars endboss a correct positioning is crucial. If a dps catches in this time the aggro by unleashing a daily or even their 3k Magnitude Mount Power, then they should cope with the consequences! They will lose dps in this case anyway because of bad timing of their burst powers! In that case, use Enforced Threat and finish the positioning task.
Optional After positioning use Tide of Iron to increase the Threat generated by many of the actions that will follow. In normal Pick Up Groups, Tide of Iron is not needed and can be replaced by Brazen Slash. Skip it if the damage dealers tend to start early with their bursts.
Now, two possible ways to handle aggro are possible. The more risky, but with a higher Threat reward when feated (a) or the less risky with less reward way (b):
Use Enforced Threat to apply the -10% Awareness Debuff. This will increase the damage the boss takes from all players if the Combat Advantage - Awareness cap of 2 is not reached!
Or do not use Enforced Threat and wait with it until either the dps finished their burst or use it immediately when a dps takes aggro in any of the next steps (then the dps from tank was not enough to cope without it).
Optional Use Knightâs Valor to cover the most aggressive damage dealer. This could be tricky to achieve at times but when possible will make you able to skip all other following steps (of course you do not want to just stand around) to maintain aggro. KV can be dropped when the fights are already taking a few minutes.
Use the Artifact and the Mount Power
Cast the Daily. This will trigger the Ring with the bonus Manticoreâs Mane Bite when equipped. Especially Second Wind will then create massive aggro via heals, so it is recommended to use this combination! If the Daily is not prepared before the boss fight, then definitely use KV (step 4) or an aggro loss is highly probable. Warn your teammates about it, that they should not start bursting without taking the consequences! Prepare for the boss fights next time better by either not using any Daily on the last trash pulls or by replenishing the Daily via aggro dummies outside of the dungeon / trial.
Recast Tide of Iron to increase the Threat generated for the next 5s.
Use any Encounter Power that deals damage and trigger Retaliate by releasing Dig In shortly after blocking an attack.
Optional Use the Neverwintan Hawk Gadget or similar Gadgets if available.
Now all Encounter Powers are used and you have some time to fill. Two ways are possible:
Optional Use Threatening Rush a few times and reposition the boss if needed. If you do not need further Threat, you can use Cleave or Brazen Slash or instead.
Optional If any Aggro Ring is equipped, run in small circles in front of the mobs to keep the Bonus active. (This feels kinda dumb, but generates more aggro than Threatening Rush in lower scaled content. In most unscaled content the increased Threat and its damage of Threatening Rush is enough to outpace the Rings Bonus. If Threatening Rush is not equipped, this Ring may help though, but then again switching Powers would be suitable beforehand anyway âŚ)
If you have not lost aggro by now, then congratulations: You have successfully overcome the biggest challenge of tanking! If you lost aggro, then the only other ways to cope with aggro problems are by increasing the damage output of your build or by asking the damage dealers to decrease their damage output! If you want to experience a too low tank damage output exemplarily then take the middle buff in the Avatar of Orcus Fight in âTomb of the Nine Godsâ! This will decrease the damage output to Avatar of Orcus to 1/10! Watch your aggro being repeatedly lost in the fight!
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