Ok, I run a shadow "tank" on POT5 (Imagynary). I have full BM, with WH hands. I took the "tanking" gear. I've read that the DPS gear might be preferable, but read it too late for me - so I still have the tanking gear right now. That said, I notice that when I feel like I'm having a "good" game I'll have maybe 50-60K prot on the score board at the end, and some healing, some DPS (I don't keep track of those as much, so I don't remember numbers).

 

Everyone once in a while I'll see someone, though, with 200+K prot. How they heck do they do that!? I try to keep a guard on a healer by default, or whoever looks like they can use it best. I try to stay close to them so the guard keeps working. I try to catch groups of people for my AOE taunt. Admittedly I probably do not watch the cooldown on taunt closely enough, and fire it off again right away.

 

Just wondering if anyone has advice for what I might be missing. Do I need to just be more ready with the taunts, or am I doing something obviously, stupidly wrong?

 

Thanks for any help!

Yeah the answer is simple. Guard a healer that you queued with, so he knows you're guarding him and heals you. And then let him heal. Everyone will rage target him and you stand next to him guarding him. Haha I've gotten 180k guarding, and close to that on several other occasions on my Hybrid Shadow.

 

Also, you will need to go up against a team that has good DPS, obviously.

You have to guard a good healer that knows you are guarding him, and the other team has to be focusing the healer. As a deception Sin though I have gotten 50k protection just off taunts as well.

As the others have said you need to make friends with a healer if you want to get high protection numbers. At most I can get 100k protection without a healer and that means a lot of downtime.

First thing is first, you have to have the right conditions in place; you have to have at least one amazing healer (or a couple of good healers) that will keep you up. You have to be playing a team that can push damage. You have to be on the primary Zerg node/door.

 

If those conditions exist, you can hit 200K protection easy. My personal best was in a ranked WZ with nearly 500K protection.

 

Keys:

- Use single target taunt on the guy trying to do AOE damage

- Get into the fray of combat & use the area taunt, then move out ASAP (so they don't target you)

- Keep your "guard" on keybind, swap it to whoever is getting burned down

- Only use your area mezzes when you're trying to buy your healer some time to self heal

- Only use single target stun/roots, etc when you have to get away

 

For Guardians, be sure to Guardian Leap to the player that is getting burned down, as this grants an additional 20% damage mitigation buff for a few seconds (all counting towards your protection stats).

 

Follow these steps & you can secure big numbers pretty easily.

Remember though, the best target to guard for protection points is not the best geared player who takes less damage to begin with, or the mobile guy who runs around not to be hit, or the one knocking people away. You really want the new squishy recruit gear healer that just learns that the well geared tank is their best friend.

 

i.e.

 

Sage in recruit gear spamming salvation, standing in it, doing self heals sucking up damage learns you are guarding them and keeps both of you alive = mega protection points

 

Scoundrel in BM/WH gear that hots you on the run and vanishes when targetted really doesn't equal much protection since he is avoiding damage

 

You can jack your numbers up by simply guarding the person with the lowest health. If they die, you still are going to be up having stopped 10k damage by the time they die horribly. RInse and repeat.

 

Taunt anyone doing aoe damage. AoE taunting the fotm smash spec'd melee trains nets like a lot. It's like 30% protection every time they try to smash for 7.5k/hit x 5 player.

 

Just like dps get yelled at to focus fire and kill healers. Tanks are the flip side of that. They should be focus taunting the alpha-dps player constantly. When you see players putting up 500k damage in a round, imagine 30% of 500K lost by taunting. Add that to you guarding a healer, or anyone, and that's how you get crazy high numbers.

Edited November 23, 2012 by social-climber
spelling

They should be focus taunting the alpha-dps player constantly. When you see players putting up 500k damage in a round, imagine 30% of 500K lost by taunting.

 

An exaggaration, as you simply cannot hold a taunt on for extended periods of time. 6 second effect and 15sec CD on the taunt would equal ~12% damage reduction if you hypothetically could taunt the same dps over and over again.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Memo-

An exaggaration, as you simply cannot hold a taunt on for extended periods of time. 6 second effect and 15sec CD on the taunt would equal ~12% damage reduction if you hypothetically could taunt the same dps over and over again.

 

Um..no. You have AE taunt as well as guard. Guard the player he is attacking...

Um..no. You have AE taunt as well as guard. Guard the player he is attacking...

 

Oh wow, are you kidding me? I had no idea such skills existed! Thanks!

 

I was talking of the effect of the single-target taunt and the exaggaration on numbers the previous poster presented. Of course you can fill in gaps with the AoE-taunt but it has a longer cooldown and would be wasted on a single target. Guard also wasn't the point of my post. Of course the two also accumulate Protection points. But the math back there was just wrong.

 

//There, I edited the quote to lower the chance of getting these idiotic answers any more.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Memo-

They have a healer buddy who they stay close to and who constantly gets attacked and heals the tank. Without that, it's hard to get great protection numbers, though a good tank does taunt a lot.

Step 1 as a tank, is to tell the healer that you're guarding him.

 

You can just go with guarding the one person. If you want to get fancy, you can switch your guard to whoever is taking damage at the time. Use your taunts on cooldown, and make sure that you use them when people damage. Often times I see people taunt when their target is either stunned, or running around to a target, that's pointless.

 

Learn the visual procs for different classes, and taunt right as those happen.

 

Also it's imperative you let healers know that you guard them, whatever you do, make sure you always do that

Use your single target taunt every time it is off cooldown. Use your AoE taunt anytime 3 or more enemies are attacking someone. Since you are a Shadow, if a lot of people are attacking the person you are guarding, you can activate Resilence and cut down on a lot of the damage you'll receive for 5 seconds, while still getting the protection from guarding them. Figure out who their highest dps player is on the team and single target taunt him all the time.

 

 

Guard swap frequently. Don't just guard a healer, I usually swap my guard to whoever the most enemies are attacking, in otherwords who is in danger of dying, even if that is a DPS and not a healer. If you notice your healer casting a heal and 1-3 people are on him, stun those people so he can get the heal off. Either that or if it is multiple enemies on him use your AoE knockback and AoE slow in conjunction to keep them out of melee range of the healer. If your healer has almost full HP and you are almost dead, take guard off of your healer until you think you are in a safe HP range again, then put it back on him.

 

 

One more nifty little trick that I do is if I used a warzone medpac(which heals me for about 10000 hp) and it's been long enough that the medpac is on cooldown again, I use force cloak and reappear so that I can use another medpac. Normally you wouldn't be able to do this because it only lets you use 1 medpac while in a fight, but using force cloak allows you to get around that.

During an average pug I may score 100k+ prot on my guardian. Add another healer for back up and it increases. Add dps'ers on the other team that focus and it spikes. Give them healers so both teams have significant time on target and the numbers skyrocket.

 

All high numbers require conditions not in your control. Like team comp and player skill on both sides. My highest protection was 375ish, the highest I've seen was 500k+. But alongside those epeen figures was huge healing and damage from both sides.

 

Hope this helps put it in perspective.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Sowwy

Thanks for all the advice! Sounds like I wasn't missing anything too obvious. Just don't have a prearranged healer, since I mostly solo queue. I do have to get better about switching guard around. And I feel a bit foolish.. I've even asked in this forum how you know as a healer which person is guarding you (from back when I ran a healer). Should have thought of that and been letting the healers know.

 

[About using medpacks to stay up... Honestly, I'm sort of afraid to use up my WZ medpacks. Saved a hundred or so from sub-50, got about 70 left now. Since I'm saving all my comms for gear don't want to "waste" it on more medpacks. Wish BW would have made them cost credits. Oh well].

First guard a healer, the worse the healer the higher protection numbers you'll have because they don't know how to use line of sight and how to kite the people attacking them but I'd still recommend guarding the better smarter healers as that helps your team more keeping them alive then the horrid guy just struggling to keep himself and you alive. Second identify the best smash/sweep spec'd player on the opposing team anytime your single target taunt is on cool down hit him with it. 3rd the only time you venture away from your chosen healer is when you run into the middle of a large fight to cast your aoe taunt. That's really the basics as a tank you're heavily reliant on having a healer to put up good numbers just like they are reliant on you. Edited November 24, 2012 by Lintman

Medpacks kind of do cost credits, you can almost always find someone selling them on the fleet for 1k each.

Remember though, the best target to guard for protection points is not the best geared player who takes less damage to begin with, or the mobile guy who runs around not to be hit, or the one knocking people away. You really want the new squishy recruit gear healer that just learns that the well geared tank is their best friend.

 

i.e.

 

Sage in recruit gear spamming salvation, standing in it, doing self heals sucking up damage learns you are guarding them and keeps both of you alive = mega protection points

 

Scoundrel in BM/WH gear that hots you on the run and vanishes when targetted really doesn't equal much protection since he is avoiding damage

 

You can jack your numbers up by simply guarding the person with the lowest health. If they die, you still are going to be up having stopped 10k damage by the time they die horribly. RInse and repeat.

 

Taunt anyone doing aoe damage. AoE taunting the fotm smash spec'd melee trains nets like a lot. It's like 30% protection every time they try to smash for 7.5k/hit x 5 player.

 

Just like dps get yelled at to focus fire and kill healers. Tanks are the flip side of that. They should be focus taunting the alpha-dps player constantly. When you see players putting up 500k damage in a round, imagine 30% of 500K lost by taunting. Add that to you guarding a healer, or anyone, and that's how you get crazy high numbers.

 

great post

You don't get protection if no one attacks the person you are guarding....that and your numbers will be lower with guard on dps than guard on a healer who is marked and focused.

Ok, I run a shadow "tank" on POT5 (Imagynary). I have full BM, with WH hands. I took the "tanking" gear. I've read that the DPS gear might be preferable, but read it too late for me - so I still have the tanking gear right now. That said, I notice that when I feel like I'm having a "good" game I'll have maybe 50-60K prot on the score board at the end, and some healing, some DPS (I don't keep track of those as much, so I don't remember numbers).

 

Everyone once in a while I'll see someone, though, with 200+K prot. How they heck do they do that!? I try to keep a guard on a healer by default, or whoever looks like they can use it best. I try to stay close to them so the guard keeps working. I try to catch groups of people for my AOE taunt. Admittedly I probably do not watch the cooldown on taunt closely enough, and fire it off again right away.

 

Just wondering if anyone has advice for what I might be missing. Do I need to just be more ready with the taunts, or am I doing something obviously, stupidly wrong?

 

Thanks for any help!

 

guard and taunt... taunts come off cd, taunt again.. you need to go up against a team that can do damage though... being able to switch your guard helps. There are these things called skill, awareness, etc....

You have to guard a good healer that knows you are guarding him, and the other team has to be focusing the healer. As a deception Sin though I have gotten 50k protection just off taunts as well.

 

This is big too. Good timed taunts can really add up.

Oh wow, are you kidding me? I had no idea such skills existed! Thanks!

 

I was talking of the effect of the single-target taunt and the exaggaration on numbers the previous poster presented. Of course you can fill in gaps with the AoE-taunt but it has a longer cooldown and would be wasted on a single target. Guard also wasn't the point of my post. Of course the two also accumulate Protection points. But the math back there was just wrong.

 

//There, I edited the quote to lower the chance of getting these idiotic answers any more.

 

How is he stretching anything? The very thread itself boasts of 200k protection which is even more than 30% of 500k damage. I believe his point was that you can mitigate a lot of damage, not that you can specifically shut one player down completely.

Ok, I run a shadow "tank" on POT5 (Imagynary). I have full BM, with WH hands. I took the "tanking" gear. I've read that the DPS gear might be preferable, but read it too late for me - so I still have the tanking gear right now. That said, I notice that when I feel like I'm having a "good" game I'll have maybe 50-60K prot on the score board at the end, and some healing, some DPS (I don't keep track of those as much, so I don't remember numbers).

 

Everyone once in a while I'll see someone, though, with 200+K prot. How they heck do they do that!? I try to keep a guard on a healer by default, or whoever looks like they can use it best. I try to stay close to them so the guard keeps working. I try to catch groups of people for my AOE taunt. Admittedly I probably do not watch the cooldown on taunt closely enough, and fire it off again right away.

 

Just wondering if anyone has advice for what I might be missing. Do I need to just be more ready with the taunts, or am I doing something obviously, stupidly wrong?

 

Thanks for any help!

 

You need good healers on your team, the game has to last quite a while, and the enemy dps must not be that good.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Smashbrother

First thing is first, you have to have the right conditions in place; you have to have at least one amazing healer (or a couple of good healers) that will keep you up. You have to be playing a team that can push damage. You have to be on the primary Zerg node/door.

 

If those conditions exist, you can hit 200K protection easy. My personal best was in a ranked WZ with nearly 500K protection.

 

Keys:

- Use single target taunt on the guy trying to do AOE damage

- Get into the fray of combat & use the area taunt, then move out ASAP (so they don't target you)

- Keep your "guard" on keybind, swap it to whoever is getting burned down

- Only use your area mezzes when you're trying to buy your healer some time to self heal

- Only use single target stun/roots, etc when you have to get away

 

For Guardians, be sure to Guardian Leap to the player that is getting burned down, as this grants an additional 20% damage mitigation buff for a few seconds (all counting towards your protection stats).

 

Follow these steps & you can secure big numbers pretty easily.

 

What this guy said, with a little extra (I can't provide, but my tank buddy could).

 

Most people think its enough to guard the healer and stick with it (which is rare on itself).But a true tank guards whoever is getting burned and switches to whatever person needs it.

 

Taunts are important, they should be on cd constantly