An open letter to DPSers

Dear DPS players,

I’ve played a tank for six years. My first was a Vah Shir Warrior in EQ. In EQ2 I tanked as a Guardian, Shadow Knight, Paladin, and Monk. In WoW I’ve tanked as a Warrior, DK, Pally and Bear. I know tanking… and I know how much DPS just loves to pad their Recount scores with early AOEs. I also know how many DPSers don’t care about properly conducting themselves outside of a progression raid. Well, I do. It’s been my philosophy since EQ that you should never slip into bad habits, even in the face of trivialized content.

I realize that many of you probably have never played a tank before. No offense intended, but a major reason people choose to be DPS rather than tank or healer (based on what many people have given as their own personal reason) is the perceived, relative lack of responsibility. I sympathize, and I don’t blame you. However, never being in the shoes of your tank can make you a horrible group/raid-mate. I’ve met DPS who outright didn’t know how aggro even worked, or why the tank couldn’t hold threat from them. The number of times an overzealous DPS has been allowed to die after telling me to “taunt more”…

Understanding that the reason I hate to group with you might be that you don’t know how various tanks get their AOE threat on, I’m here to help. Here is a very basic (VERY basic) guide to how you can tell, visually and auditory, if your tank is ready for you to open up you can of unpleasantness.

Prot Warrior:
Shield Slam: (No visual indication other than an animation that doesn’t always play, but you can listen to the CLANG the move makes. This is single target, but it’s usually used right away to cement aggro on the first kill target so single target DPS can jump the gun and not screw things up too bad.)
Thunder Clap: (A blue and white burst AOE, and the warrior makes a sort of stomping animation. Debuff can be seen on mobs caught in the blast.)
Shockwave: (A frontal cone AOE that looks like an explosion of dust and swirling bits of floor. Stuns the mobs.)

If your target has the Thunder Clap debuff and is stunned, you’re ready to AOE.

Prot Paladin:
Avenger’s Shield: (A yellow, glowing shield that bounces between targets.)
Hammer of the Righteous: (A little hammer than bounces between targets and makes a sound like a gong being hit.)
Consecration: (Glowing, yellow veins on the floor. Mobs must be standing in the glowing area to be taking damage and generating threat.)

If the pally has used Shield, Hammer, and the mobs have stood in the Consecrate for a couple seconds, you are completely safe to bust out the AOE.

Bear Druid:
Swipe + Maul: (Everything gets hit and blood goes everywhere. Makes a “sploich” kind of sound.)

This one’s just a matter of waiting. While Bears have a spammable AOE, each hit does not do a tremendous amount of damage. If you play with your game sounds on (and you SHOULD), then hearing the Swipe land three or four times should be enough head start for any Bear.

Frost DK:
For a Frost DK (and I can’t speak to Blood or Unholy), there are two common ways to deal with an AOE pull in heroics. There are other possibilities, but I’m going to talk specifically about Two-Handed Weapon, Single Disease style.  Which of the following happens usually depends on whether or not Death and Decay is off cool down.

Death and Decay: (Large, glowing red patch on the ground.)
Howling Blast: (All mobs get hit by a blue blast. In this specific spec/style, the tank is also glyphed to make this apply Frost Fever when it hits.)
Blood Boil: (A red blast from all mobs, and a harsh whooshing sound .)

Howling Blast
Blood Boil
Blood Boil

Either of these two situations equates to good AOE threat for the Frost DK, however the first one, using Death and Decay, is the higher threat of the two.

If you AOE before these conditions are met, you’re an inconsiderate DPS. If you DPS at all before they’re met, you’re risking making your tank’s job harder. The exceptions to the rule here, of course, are Rogues and Hunters who can use Tricks of the Trade and Misdirect respectively to transfer their threat to the tank. They can open up with AOEs and DPS a lot earlier so long as they make use of these abilities. In fact, you SHOULD be using these abilities at every possible opportunity.

Consider, for a moment, the number of moves a tank has to perform to keep you safe. Now consider how many you need to perform to fuck it all up…

Blizzard

Seed of Corruption

Divine Storm

Whirlwind

Bladestorm

Hurricane

See a pattern here? Three global cool downs is usually the minimum for us to get any sort of AOE control. And all DPS has to do to jump the gun is press one button. We’re working harder to keep you safe than you are at successfully killing yourselves. Make both our lives easier, and just chill out for a couple second before you go apeshit on a new pull. Your tanks and healers will thank you.

-Udiyvli

~ by Udiyvli on 02/02/2010.