Saturday, June 5, 2010

How To Tank as a Druid (protip: hold down two buttons)

A two part instructional video series that speaks for itself.










Part 1:



Part 2:



Glyph of Maul makes Maul hit two targets. You can see MSBT (Mik's Scrolling Battle Text) going fucking nuts the entire time, because I haven't really configured it to cut back on spam yet. This Druid was mostly leveled on /follow of my Shaman, but has since started tanking since 3x XP for RAF wore off and I can insta queue randoms as a tank. I use Tidy Threat Plates to see what I have aggro on; little green rectangles = OK, big red rectangles = ZOMG TAUNT THAT. In one pull there's a bunch of Big Reds on some birds, indicating I don't have threat on them. Note that this is because they haven't been pulled yet, and not because fighting for threat is anything that requires... well, even looking at the screen. : /

Notice the keyboard turning, as my other hand was holding the camera. It doesn't even affect my ability to "tank".

Possible improvement to the setup: move my two buttons closer together to avoid hand cramps. Hell, I could just make one key that's "5,7,Tab, 5, 7, Tab" over and over. I could even make it so I push the button to turn it on, and push it again to turn it off. I wouldn't even need to hold it down at that point. This post was mostly proof of concept.


Zzzzz.



11 comments:

Griddlebone said...

Excellent guide, and teh funniez as well. I have a much harder time on my DK. Really. Honestly.

Speaking of the n52te, can you use the thumb for abilities? After weeks of raiding all the digits on my left hand are pretty much packing it apart from the thumb, so that's my spamming finger until something else starts working again. I've been wanting to get one of them for ages but never really committed to buying it.

Rich said...

yeah, I got two guides up on how to use/program it, you can pretty much set any button on it to be anything you want:

http://www.ixobelle.com/2010/02/belkin-n52te-and-how-to-use-it.html

(the first sentence in that link has a link to my older guide, of which the new one is mostly an update)

I use the thumb for Tab, and the dpad for Alt, Shift, Ctrl modifiers and jump).

Check the link, not going to retype it all here ;)

Sage said...

Yeah, tanking on a DK means keeping your diseases up, spamming Rune Strike, and using strikes intelligently (Death Strike when you need that boost of health, Heart Strike when you don't). I haven't done Frost Tanking in forever. I hope Pallies get their AoE nurfed to Blood's level. The qq would be amazing.

Sage said...

Oh, and tanking as a pally is actually similar to tanking on a druid. Two buttons (leading to two complex macros), alternate buttons, profit.

Khatib said...

This looks really fun. I might have to start playing WoW again...

Klepsacovic said...

That shit was INTENSE!

Per S said...

Super Protip:

/cast Swipe(Bear)();
/cast !Maul


!Maul makes it not toggle off when you use the macro, just on, all the time.

Now you can use the other finger for faerie fire.

Rich said...

you mean I CAN ROLL MY FACE HARDER?

OMG <3

*edit* LIES!@2!!1 your macro fails

Larísa said...

That is... not what it looks like when noob Larísa is trying to tank. Not at all.
I don't have that technical device but still... Just a simple thing as swipe and maul... it feels as if it's not available like 90 percent of the time. What am I doing wrong? Is it lack of rage that does it? And how do I get that a bit quicker?

What you're doing may look really simple and zzz... But to me it's not.
WTB skills.

Per S said...

I apologize, I missed a space.

The real macro is

/cast Swipe (Bear)()
/cast !Maul

Rich said...

@Larisa: you gotta walk up and get slapped around first. The initial rage generation for the bear feels slow, compared to my warrior... hell, everything feels slow on the bear, like i'm playing underwater. I'm used to popping Bloodrage, then charging (which on a warrior MAKES rage, but on a bear COSTS rage), thunder clapping, sundering something, then spinning around (jump for style points) and chucking off a shockwave in whatever direction needs more aggro. The bear just has me Enraging, and just... walking up there to get slapped in the face. Swipe is full 360 degrees, so there's no need to aim. Maul is actually your rage burn for when you have too much, but at 71, with 4 mobs in a pull beating on me, i'm not lacking... it's just faceroll.

@Per: I fully intend to follow up on this later in the day after I get some work done.