So now I finished the Red Reaper and I realized something I can not keep the aggro on me only, when I am fighting multiple opponents I try and try to take the aggro from the dps in the group and keep all the mobs on me but its impossible how do I make all the mobs attack me and only me?

What is your secret tanks?

Edited July 30, 2015 by adormitul

focus dps on only one mob (unless tactics demand otherwise) and (aoe)taunt once you lse them. Also put guard on the highest out put dps to keep their agro low

focus dps on only one mob (unless tactics demand otherwise) and (aoe)taunt once you lse them. Also put guard on the highest out put dps to keep their agro low

 

Not the healer?

focus dps on only one mob (unless tactics demand otherwise) and (aoe)taunt once you lse them. Also put guard on the highest out put dps to keep their agro low

 

Classic way to tunnel vision, you focusing on one mob means that a healer is going to get all of the ones you didnt focus on. Meaning yay you have aggro on one mob, meanwhile the healer is getting his face kicked in.

 

For groups of mobs: Guard healer

For boss fights with no add phases: Guard highest DPS

For boss fights with a lot of add phases: Guard Swap, start with highest dps if add phases are later, star with healer if add phase starts at the start of the fight.

 

But in any case this still doesn't help him how to tank.

 

I need to know more about him

- What level are you?

- What class?

 

These 2 things mainly, if you're not level 60 yet then I can understand why it might be hard to keep aggro (lack of AOE taunt, guard, high threat generating moves and lack of threat increasing passive disciplines.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Faardor

Not the healer?

 

Only if he pulls more agro then the dps, which should not happen unless you guys take way too much dmg or the dps are not doing their job.

Classic way to tunnel vision, you focusing on one mob means that a healer is going to get all of the ones you didnt focus on. Meaning yay you have aggro on one mob, meanwhile the healer is getting his face kicked in.

 

I meant the DPS (classes) should focus on one mob

Hello! Don't know if your max level and trust me agro will get better when you are... But the rule of thumb in tanking mobs is mainly after you aoe taunt and do whatever aoe abilities to hold the mob together, just worry about the gold or elite npc/s and if say a silver or other breaks off then the dps can just kill it, they will survive it as long as the helaer is paying attention. I play a Jugg tank and what I do is leap into a mob, then smash, then sweeping slash and if they start to break away I aoe taunt, then I focus on a the highest npc a gold or elite and just try to keep him on me the whole time.

 

Are you guarding a dps that keep ripping from you? might do that, I don't guard a healer ever, use your single taunt to get a npc off a heals.

 

Another tip is if someone rips agro off you and the npc is almost dead don't bother taunting it, again just let the dps kill it...

 

If you have impatient dps and they open up before you, just wait a few global cd's and aoe taunt then yell at them lol! you will get to the top threat meter and can hold pretty good.

 

Also don't be afraid to call for CC's and line of sight certain mobs as ranged can be a pain to keep them on you...

 

hope this helps

I need to know more about him

- What level are you?

- What class?

 

These 2 things mainly, if you're not level 60 yet then I can understand why it might be hard to keep aggro (lack of AOE taunt, guard, high threat generating moves and lack of threat increasing passive disciplin

I am level 46 guardian also its my first tank. And yes the dps in the FP I played do not focus on one mob but each one attack the other. Its not a big problem at my current level as I can take a lot of damage but I think at some point this might not work. I am also sure that later the healer can not keep up.

For groups of mobs: Guard healer

For boss fights with no add phases: Guard highest DPS

For boss fights with a lot of add phases: Guard Swap, start with highest dps if add phases are later, star with healer if add phase starts at the start of the fight.

 

 

Why would you guard the healer with groups of mobs ? If mobs/adds are "untouched" by both tank and dps, those adds will attack the healer regardless of guard. Guard only reduces aggro, doesn't negate it. And if those adds are being handled by the tank or dps (as it should be), there's no way the healer will outaggro them. Healing aggro is really small.

To keep aggro on all (or at least most of) the mobs, you usually need to group them up, position yourself so as to be able to hit them all, and use your best AoE damage abilities, which are :

shadow : slow time, force breach, whirling blow

guardian : guardian strike (with warding strike buff), force sweep, cyclone slash

vanguard : ion storm, mortar volley, explosive surge, high impact bolt's ion cell component.

 

AoE taunt LATE. Give yourself time to build up some threat or it'll be useless. Well, obviously, if one dps takes all the aggro away from you, you'll have to use it to save them.

 

That alone should be enough to outthreat your dps when they're focusing on aoe damage themselves, but if they're focusing on one target only, they may still rip aggro from you on that particular enemy. If it's a weak enemy you can pretty much ignore it, it'll die soon. Otherwise, you just need to keep an eye out for it and taunt back when you see it. Try to zoom out your camera as far as possible to have a good view of the whole battlefield. You can also pres tabto cycle through all the enemies and make sure they're all targetting you.

 

Things you can do to group up enemies that are spread out :

if they're melee, let them come to you.

corner pull ranged enemies (draw their attention then hide around a corner/pillar, so they'll be forced to come near you to be able to shoot at you)

Pull (shadow) or grapple (vanguard)

Push (guardian) or a carefully positionned knockback (shadow)

 

For the record : red reaper's trash pulls are considered harder than most. It's a good challenge for a tank or healer in need of practice.

 

 

Not the healer?

 

Most of the time and especially before the level cap, you shouldn't need a guard to keep aggro on anyone, dps or healer. You can guard the healer for the tiny bit of damage reduction, or ignore guard entirely. It's almost never going to affect the outcome of the fight. It's a primarily pvp ability that kind of fails to translate to something truly useful in pve.

 

And even in those cases where you could use the extra help with aggro, you can only guard one dps.

I am level 46 guardian also its my first tank. And yes the dps in the FP I played do not focus on one mob but each one attack the other. Its not a big problem at my current level as I can take a lot of damage but I think at some point this might not work. I am also sure that later the healer can not keep up.

 

yeah makes sense, keeping aggro will get easier as you reach max level cap anyway.

 

Ideally:

- Target mark the strongest enemy (be it, silver, gold, champion) and try to ask the DPS to focus that target.

- Jump onto that target OR a target that allows you to easily do your AOE threat rotation on the highest amount of adds possible (sorry im not too familiar with a guardians moves but if im getting this right then: Guardian slash, force sweep, cyclone slash.)

- Optional: Use Awe (your AOE stun) if applicable (doesn't work on droids) especially if they are already starting to break away. While they are stunned try to generate threat on the ones that were starting to move away.

- Use your AOE taunt or freezing force if still breaking away

- Use single taunt to keep threat on the highest rank enemy. (also your single target big hitters)

 

tips:

- Never EVER open up with a taunt. A taunt on a target without any aggro generated is basically the equivalent of ONE threat. The only reason you would want to open up with a taunt is if its required for boss mechanics (The writhing horror in TFB comes to mind, at least on HM anyway, since you don't want adds to spawn until the flower circle phase)

- Make sure you have focus target on. This way you can see if the target you are currently attacking has you as their focus target (that means that you have the highest threat on em)

- Try to only use taunts as a last desperate measure, being overly reliant on taunts means that if you ever get caught with your pants down (i.e your taunts on cooldown) that your raid group could get messed up.

- CC is just as good as a taunt, be it a stun (awe, force stasis), slow (Freezing force) or displacement (force push)

- Regardless of threat, always guard someone, 10% free damage mitigation is always useful.

 

Guard only reduces aggro, doesn't negate it.

 

exactly the reason why you want to apply it to the healer. less threat generated by him/her means less threat you have to generate.

 

I feel like I should elaborate on the "have dps attack strongest enemy thing" THe reason behind is, is if they are going to attack the weakest enemies, that you're basically gonna do catch up work. (think whack a mole, you just got aggro on enemy y oops, DPS just killed it, etc etc. Plus being able to help your DPS DOT Spread or do high damage AOE abilities (death from above, force storm) Through a mob that wont die instantly = le awesome. teach your DPS on why you're doing it and they'll start loving you.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Faardor

Don't open with taunt. Jump into the group and use your big AOE threat attacks to gain aggro on them all. Then after you've done some damage to them all, if they wander to someone else you can start using taunts. Mainly concentrate on the higher ranked mobs, since the DPS should be killing the weaks first and they die quickly.

 

Don't guard healers. Attacking a mob just once practically guarantees it will never run to a healer. Guard can't protect against unaggroed mobs.

Not the healer?

 

You almost never want to use guard on a healer.

 

While healers build threat on every mob during a pull, the amount of threat they generate is significantly reduced. The only time a healer should pull aggro at all, is if nobody else has hit the mob. So simply hitting the mob just once will almost always ensure that the healer doesn't get aggro.

 

About the only time you should ever use Guard on a healer, is in PVP.

I am level 46 guardian also its my first tank. And yes the dps in the FP I played do not focus on one mob but each one attack the other. Its not a big problem at my current level as I can take a lot of damage but I think at some point this might not work. I am also sure that later the healer can not keep up.

 

In groups of mobs force leap in, do an aoe attk, then aoe aggro. Also make sure your in the right stance, if you are using guard then I believe you have that covered. Save your single target taunt for any stragglers that may veer off and attk healer or dps.

 

also keep an eyenout for aoe effect areas, because otherwise the healer will hate you.

- Target mark the strongest enemy (be it, silver, gold, champion) and try to ask the DPS to focus that target.

 

DPS should be killing the strongest enemy last. Their damage/health ratio is the lowest. DPS should be killing weakest to strongest.

 

- Never EVER open up with a taunt. A taunt on a target without any aggro generated is basically the equivalent of ONE threat. The only reason you would want to open up with a taunt is if its required for boss mechanics (The writhing horror in TFB comes to mind, at least on HM anyway, since you don't want adds to spawn until the flower circle phase)

 

I wouldn't even use taunt to start on the Writhing Horror. I'd use it very early in the rotation, but not as an opener. If someone else is starting the fight to get the initial aggro then that's a different problem.

 

- Regardless of threat, always guard someone, 10% free damage mitigation is always useful.

 

I believe it's 5%.

 

exactly the reason why you want to apply it to the healer. less threat generated by him/her means less threat you have to generate.

 

Healers generate such little threat, if there are adds going to the healer then it means no one attacked them. Even if the healer only has 1 threat, 25% threat reduction can't make 1 < 0.

Edited July 30, 2015 by MillionsKNives

Don't guard healers. Attacking a mob just once practically guarantees it will never run to a healer. Guard can't protect against unaggroed mobs.

 

not exactly true

 

scenario: Commando / Scoundrel / Sage has 8 Trauma probes, kolto probes, force armor shields active. Along with any sort of healing or damage abilities can easily get a few seconds of adds or even boss aggro on you. (Bulo is fun to test this on, and by fun I mean god awful, if the tanks dont have aggro on 1st and 2nd place that messes up the raid group, ive personally experienced it on my merc healer even while applying my threat drop after the tanks used their taunts up. (so before bulo starts shotgunning people) It isnt fun Q.Q.

 

the same easily happens for any of the add pulls in TOS or Ravagers, Mass kolto probe / trauma probe / force armors burst up a healers threat significantly.

 

In any case who gets threat where and how is one of those things you'll learn over time as a tank, learning the inside out of other classes can help you significantly keep aggro (altough nobody would ask you to learn all the classes lol.

 

DPS should be killing the strongest enemy last. Their damage/health ratio is the lowest. DPS should be killing weakest to strongest.

 

I disagree, mainly because if you can get threat on all enemies and allowing your DPS to DOT spread or apply big heavy AOE hitters then you decrease the DPS burden and time to kill. Try and play an AOE dot spread class (especially melee one at that) and you'll learn why.

 

also you're right it was 5% I was thinking of something else, point still stands. Always guard someone regardless of threat, it reduces the healers burden (if only slightly so lol)

Edited July 30, 2015 by Faardor

yeah makes sense, keeping aggro will get easier as you reach max level cap anyway.

 

Ideally:

- Target mark the strongest enemy (be it, silver, gold, champion) and try to ask the DPS to focus that target.

- Jump onto that target OR a target that allows you to easily do your AOE threat rotation on the highest amount of adds possible (sorry im not too familiar with a guardians moves but if im getting this right then: Guardian slash, force sweep, cyclone slash.)

- Optional: Use Awe (your AOE stun) if applicable (doesn't work on droids) especially if they are already starting to break away. While they are stunned try to generate threat on the ones that were starting to move away.

- Use your AOE taunt or freezing force if still breaking away

- Use single taunt to keep threat on the highest rank enemy. (also your single target big hitters)

 

tips:

- Never EVER open up with a taunt. A taunt on a target without any aggro generated is basically the equivalent of ONE threat. The only reason you would want to open up with a taunt is if its required for boss mechanics (The writhing horror in TFB comes to mind, at least on HM anyway, since you don't want adds to spawn until the flower circle phase)

- Make sure you have focus target on. This way you can see if the target you are currently attacking has you as their focus target (that means that you have the highest threat on em)

- Try to only use taunts as a last desperate measure, being overly reliant on taunts means that if you ever get caught with your pants down (i.e your taunts on cooldown) that your raid group could get messed up.

- CC is just as good as a taunt, be it a stun (awe, force stasis), slow (Freezing force) or displacement (force push)

- Regardless of threat, always guard someone, 10% free damage mitigation is always useful.

 

 

 

exactly the reason why you want to apply it to the healer. less threat generated by him/her means less threat you have to generate.

 

I feel like I should elaborate on the "have dps attack strongest enemy thing" THe reason behind is, is if they are going to attack the weakest enemies, that you're basically gonna do catch up work. (think whack a mole, you just got aggro on enemy y oops, DPS just killed it, etc etc. Plus being able to help your DPS DOT Spread or do high damage AOE abilities (death from above, force storm) Through a mob that wont die instantly = le awesome. teach your DPS on why you're doing it and they'll start loving you.

 

This is wrong. Dps should kill the weakest first and work their way "up" to the strongest, otherwise you'll just unnecessarily stress the healer (or depending of the situation, overwhelm him/her and simply wipe the group), not because of aggro, but because all the damage taken by the group.

The weak might be weak in terms of hp they have but they still do damage, so leaving them live for long is a bad choice. You kill the weak first, then the group takes a lot of less damage alltogether

 

Anyways, as a tank your job is to protect the squishys in your group and a bunch of mobs focusing on one is really bad. Let's say a sniper with Suppresive Fire on is much much much more likely to get aggro on those mobs (and get dead because of it ) than a healer. Guard the dps, not the healer.

not exactly true

 

scenario: Commando / Scoundrel / Sage has 8 Trauma probes, kolto probes, force armor shields active. Along with any sort of healing or damage abilities can easily get a few seconds of adds or even boss aggro on you. (Bulo is fun to test this on, and by fun I mean god awful, if the tanks dont have aggro on 1st and 2nd place that messes up the raid group, ive personally experienced it on my merc healer even while applying my threat drop after the tanks used their taunts up. (so before bulo starts shotgunning people) It isnt fun Q.Q.

 

the same easily happens for any of the add pulls in TOS or Ravagers, Mass kolto probe / trauma probe / force armors burst up a healers threat significantly.

 

In any case who gets threat where and how is one of those things you'll learn over time as a tank, learning the inside out of other classes can help you significantly keep aggro (altough nobody would ask you to learn all the classes lol.

 

If 1st or 2nd aggro is going to the healers on Bulo then you need to have a talk with your tanks and DPS. The adds are a different story as they seem to have a weird aggro table. They tend not to even stay on the tanks for the 6 seconds that taunt is supposed to. That's also a situation where no one really does much if any damage to them since they're supposed to be killed by circles.

 

The main time I see healers ever get aggro in TOS or ravagers trash is when they're so spread out they're not properly attacked to take aggro. Guard isn't really going to help there. Also, most of those pulls are LOS'd anyway to mitigate that.

disagree, mainly because if you can get threat on all enemies and allowing your DPS to DOT spread or apply big heavy AOE hitters then you decrease the DPS burden and time to kill. Try and play an AOE dot spread class (especially melee one at that) and you'll learn why.

 

also you're right it was 5% I was thinking of something else, point still stands. Always guard someone regardless of threat, it reduces the healers burden (if only slightly so lol)

I have a healer also at level 50 and when the tank failed to aggro all as we all do and the mobs attacked me I ran to the tank to aggro them so they will leave me alone.

This is wrong. Dps should kill the weakest first and work their way "up" to the strongest, otherwise you'll just unnecessarily stress the healer (or depending of the situation, overwhelm him/her and simply wipe the group), not because of aggro, but because all the damage taken by the group.

The weak might be weak in terms of hp they have but they still do damage, so leaving them live for long is a bad choice. You kill the weak first, then the group takes a lot of less damage alltogether

 

Anyways, as a tank your job is to protect the squishys in your group and a bunch of mobs focusing on one is really bad. Let's say a sniper with Suppresive Fire on is much much much more likely to get aggro on those mobs (and get dead because of it ) than a healer. Guard the dps, not the healer.

 

I disagree, mainly because if you can get threat on all enemies and allowing your DPS to DOT spread or apply big heavy AOE hitters then you decrease the DPS burden and time to kill. Try and play an AOE dot spread class (especially melee one at that) and you'll learn why.

 

no DPS is going to die from having aggro on one mob (not to mention that if all DPS are on one mob that, that mob will most likely target switch a couple of times)

I disagree, mainly because if you can get threat on all enemies and allowing your DPS to DOT spread or apply big heavy AOE hitters then you decrease the DPS burden and time to kill. Try and play an AOE dot spread class (especially melee one at that) and you'll learn why.

 

no DPS is going to die from having aggro on one mob (not to mention that if all DPS are on one mob that, that mob will most likely target switch a couple of times)

 

This is a different and more advanced concern. But even then it shouldn't be "everyone pile on the toughest mob just because dot specs like it", the DOT specs should be trying to put their DOTs on a mob that will survive at least a good portion of the duration so that they can spread fine, but that doesn't translate to "kill the guy with the most health so that everything stays alive as long as possible". And non-DOT specs don't have this concern and should still be killing weakest to strongest.

Edited July 30, 2015 by MillionsKNives

This is a different and more advanced concern. But even then it shouldn't be "everyone pile on the toughest mob just because dot specs like it", the DOT specs should be trying to put their DOTs on a mob that will survive at least a good portion of the duration so that they can spread fine, but that doesn't translate to "kill the guy with the most health so that everything stays alive as long as possible". And non-DOT specs don't have this concern and should still be killing weakest to strongest.

 

burst specs still benefit from this however, since something like Railshot, series of shots (the newer one, forgot the name) wont lose 50% or more of its damage hitting nothing (imagine a 12k attack on a 6k enemy) not to mention most burst specs have a high damage aoe attack (Attack from above / sweeping blasters, orbital strike / supressive fire, force storm, etc) ill somewhat agree with your point if only in certain situational group comps. (a marauder in carnage, a operative in concealment for example) But yes these are advanced tanking / dps mechanics, expecting your average DPS to make use of it is another.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Faardor

so few things high level:

 

1) Make sure your gearing is correct. Can look up dulfy or other guides on this, but the basics of making sure you are using the correct tanking gear for your class and alos you are in tanking stance/build.

 

2) tank should pull the fight. This lets you start the aggro table on the enemies vs dps starting off the fight and you having to surpass them in threat by using your taunt too early

 

3) In my experience, DPS should kill weakest to strongest. 1 ememy shooting group/tank vs 5 doing damage to group is better.

 

4) Lower level=less abilities so can be more difficult, just takes practice and a group that isn't flying around leroy jenkins style and mkaing your lfie more difficult.

 

 

Keep at it. Tanking can be difficult to learn, but it is a tough job and requires the a more complete understanding. Once you get it and it "clicks" you'll be fine.

Red Reaper, is probably the worst FP on tanks, guardian being the one hit hardest because they have fewer tools to group mobs together. Many pulls with several strong mobs scattered everywhere with ambushes in several spots. AOE as much as you can when mobs are together. Force sweep, Guardian Slash (after you hit Warding strike of course) and Cyclone slash are good ways to get everything pointed at you. Use taunt and AOE taunt after others get aggro, but remember taunting only helps longer than the 6 seconds if you hit them.

burst specs still benefit from this however, since something like Railshot, series of shots (the newer one, forgot the name) wont lose 50% or more of its damage hitting nothing (imagine a 12k attack on a 6k enemy)

 

The problem here is that you are assuming that whatever looks good on the DPS parser is what is best. That isn't true. Targeting strongest first may net better DPS but it also increases the damage taken of the group which puts a lot more pressure on the healer, which can easily lead to a wipe.

 

Besides if your target only has 6k health you don't shoot it with a 12k attack, you shoot it with a 6k filler and then shoot the next mob with the 12k attack.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Zoom_VI