So I started tanking....

Mr_Walker

After mainly dpsing, and I'm really enjoying it. Taunting, buffing, debuffing. Good fun, keeps you thinking.

My only question is... what do I do with trash mobs? Taunt as many as I can whilst laughing at their feeble efforts?

daemonios

Taunt them. It helps keep them in a tight ball around you for the DPS to melt, plus the sword & board taunt gives them physical and magical resistance debuffs (faster melt). Do prioritize, i.e. taunt big, hard-hitting ones first so they don't turn on your class cannon team mates.

HJSmith24

Main thing to do as a tank in trash mobs is to stack them up so they die quicker to dps cleave / aoes.

In dungeons it's literally just chaining them together and buffing as much as you can.
In trials there may be a few adds that can hurt dd's, so moving / positioning them is also important to consider while you stack

Mr_Walker

daemonios wrote: »

Taunt them. It helps keep them in a tight ball around you for the DPS to melt, plus the sword & board taunt gives them physical and magical resistance debuffs (faster melt). Do prioritize, i.e. taunt big, hard-hitting ones first so they don't turn on your class cannon team mates.

So pretty much poke as many as I can? I can do that! Thanks.

ZeroXFF

Mr_Walker wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

Taunt them. It helps keep them in a tight ball around you for the DPS to melt, plus the sword & board taunt gives them physical and magical resistance debuffs (faster melt). Do prioritize, i.e. taunt big, hard-hitting ones first so they don't turn on your class cannon team mates.

So pretty much poke as many as I can? I can do that! Thanks.

Also chain in the ranged ones that are stubborn and refuse to come close. And if you play a class that has an AoE root, use it when you run into an already packed group of trash to keep them away from the healer and ranged DDs. It also gives you time to poke/chain a few more adds before they start hitting your group.

Dubhliam

I mostly just range taunt twohanders or other elite mobs while engaging, then Talon all on a stack spot (look for Liquid Lightning if you have sorcs in group) then chain a few ranged mobs, talon them again and finally start (re)taunting.

Most mobs should already be dead at that point if you have a decent group.

Ackwalan

If not a DK with chains, get silver bolts from the fighters guild. One of the morphs from it allows you to pull mobs in.

Houshiki

Already been said a few times, but yes, chain in mobs to stack and burn. Root them if you can. And make sure to prioritize your taunting towards hard hitting or 1-shot mobs.

kargen27

When you start the fight you can hit them with Caltrops as you go in and most the melee mob will go to you and it slows them down. Then just grab the ranged as you can. If there is two groups of mobs you can Caltrop one and then go to the other. When it works well you end up with both mobs in one spot for the DPS.

Let your group know what you are doing though so they don't attack early and get the aggro instead.

Also let the group know if they get a melee on them they should just come to you so it will follow and you can grab it. Basically you want as many as you can get all in the DPS's AoEs. A few stragglers here or there doesn't hurt much.

When I started tanking a big mistake I often made was I would worry about getting all the mob in, run low on resources and then let the boss get away. So while chaining them in or whatever else you do to control them keep an eye on your resources.

And sometimes just for the hell of it (with friends) when a DPS is out there by himself playing with that one archer chain the archer in so he has to run back again.

ArchMikem

Certain mobs take priority over others, depending on their threat level to the group. Hard hitting melee should be taunted, followed by the ranged, archers and mages. You dont need to taunt every single one in a pull, but try for most in order to take the pressure off your group. I will say though since Healers cant much defend themselves while doing their job, any mobs going after your Healer are also a priority.

Mr_Walker

Thanks for the advice guys. Lots to think about. I am enjoying thinking tactically rather than more "hack and slash" like with my DPS.

kargen27 wrote: »

Let your group know what you are doing though so they don't attack early and get the aggro instead.

I've only run a few with pugs, and half the time you can't stop them lol.

kargen27

Mr_Walker wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys. Lots to think about. I am enjoying thinking tactically rather than more "hack and slash" like with my DPS.

kargen27 wrote: »

Let your group know what you are doing though so they don't attack early and get the aggro instead.

I've only run a few with pugs, and half the time you can't stop them lol.

A couple of the guilds I am in have an unofficial rule in trials. You go in before the tank and get aggro you tank it and probably without much healing. Then we laugh when you die. Hard to have that attitude with pugs though because they don't see the humor in it. Still I know a few tanks that let whoever goes in first keep what they aggro just out of general principle. I don't have that attitude but I can understand why some do.

In a decent group the tank should decide when the fight starts and where it will take place.

idk

It depends on your class for starters. And the quality of dps in your group.

if a DK or Warden root them pull in outliers. DK talons and chains, Warden The ice field and silver leash. Best to start at a group with melee, root, pull a few then root again. If low DPS start taunting after getting everything in. Templar can use their cleans as it has a snare and any class can use caltrops. I have found Drain power morphs can help get AoE agro when on a NB.

Otherwise, set priority of the most dangers. That varies from dungeon to dungeon but thinks like 2H. You do not have to get everything taunted.

SvariBK

Ye what I do on my dk is, I just run in the group use talons and taunt the mobs that hit hard, after that chain the others in. Then talons chain chain talons till they are dead. That the easiest way and you don't have to run a round like a chicken trying to taunt all of them and your DDs have an ez time killing em:)

VaranisArano

On trash mobs I only taunt priority targets (2handers and minibosses) who can one shot my squishier teammates. This is either Pierce Armor or sometimes Inner Fire. The minotaurs on Falkreath had a bad habit of charging past me, so I learned to taunt early with Inner Fire.

For the rest of them, I use CC and AOE damage. On my MagDK, that's talons and chains. On my stam sorc tank, that's Caltrops, and the fighters guild leash.


For groups where DDs rush ahead, I'm pretty laid back. "You aggro it, you can tank it until I get there, and I'm not rushing."

Nestor

Chains is essential for dealing with trash. So is Talons, but I have better results with chains. Many of the dungeons have those pesky ranged mobs that stay outside of AoE range. Anyway, I pull the ranged mobs in to me so the DPS can burn them down. Get the Morph that returns the cost on a failed pull, as you will miss fire often due to LOS issues.

AcadianPaladin

You have some skill choice options to help manage your magicka and stamina. My DK chose the stam morph of the undaunted ranged taunt. We also actually use the Silver leash pull instead of chains since it is a stam skill whereas chains is magicka. That helps me manage the balance between mag/stam use better since my shield, talons and buffs eat quite a bit of magicka. Not saying do what I do, simply pick and choose the mix of stam/mag choices that work best for your character.

paulychan

Stack, cc, debuff, hold

BejaProphet

@AcadianPaladin is right. Though which ability is better is an important question, it also matters whether the net total in yourbar is set so that you have a good rhythm of stam and mag abilities that fit you personally. So you don’t habitually exhaust one or the other.

Running stamina version of range taunt and silver leash lets me easily replace the cost with heavy attacks, and frees my magicka to lean more heavily on talons to pin them in the pile. But my point being is not which abilities there, but it works so well because I’m blending the resource pools so that I can “chain and pin” so much more.

kylewwefan

In most trash fights, there’s a few elite type priority targets. They’re usually bigger or waving around a giant 2H or something. Taunt them so they don’t bust up your team. Try to pull in ranged mobs. Gather everything up to the meat grinder.

Veinblood1965

This has been helpful to me also, thanks. Started a tank alternate recently, DK

Malacthulhu

Pull as many as I can then cloak watch dps and healer struggle even die and ask why they were standing the red. Right after that I do a horn emote and ask if anyone got my warhorn. I only do real warhorns if they earn it by complementing my elite tanking skills.

Jeremy

Mr_Walker wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

Taunt them. It helps keep them in a tight ball around you for the DPS to melt, plus the sword & board taunt gives them physical and magical resistance debuffs (faster melt). Do prioritize, i.e. taunt big, hard-hitting ones first so they don't turn on your class cannon team mates.

So pretty much poke as many as I can? I can do that! Thanks.

That's essentially what I do as well.

Dragon Knights have an edge here because they have an area CC ability and the ability to pull ranged mobs to them. This allows them to control groups much easier than say a Templar tank can.

Ertosi

While pugging today on my low level tank I'm building up, I ran into something interesting. Another player learning to tank while in the Role of DD. He was pretty low level as well, only armed with S&B and mainly spamming Puncture, light attacks, and lots of self heals. He wasn't replying to my Group hails to remove Puncture from his skill bar so I figured if he wanted aggro that bad, whatevs… I mean, I'm max CP with nice leveling/tanking gear, nothing there could have even nicked me, but it was only nFG1. He took a constant and severe beating but to his credit, despite numerous self-inflicted close calls, he never went down. We finally finished, I sent him a polite final message that its best to leave aggro to those Roled as tanks, and now its back to my regularly scheduled day.

Porter_H

Taunt heavy hitters (generally 2hand weapons) and try to round them up.... chains, gate, leash. AoE snare makes kills much faster for dps keeping them in ground AoEs (DK, Sorc, Warden all have class snares).