I just recently finished a heroic on Taris [Republic: Total Elimination] and it was 3 DPS [2 melee] and a Tank [Myself]

 

In this heroic, EVERYONE was an elite and we would take on these elites in groups of 4 or 5. I would draw aggro from all of them and with my stims, shields and cooldowns, I would hold my own and be able to kill 1 or 2 guys before I fall.

 

Does this mean I am a bad tank? I mean I was drawing ALL of the aggro so nobody really had a scratch on them while I was alive. Thing is, I couldn't stay alive long enough to finish out the whole mob.

 

So yeah, does this mean I am a bad tank or does it mean that I really needed a healer as Tanks + Healers really go hand in hand?

well.. you are republic, so yes.

You just need a healer

well.. you are republic, so yes.

 

Well if I was a BH Powertech [Tank] in a group of two Mauraders and one IA Sniper, and the same thing happens, then what?

Well if I was a BH Powertech [Tank] in a group of two Mauraders and one IA Sniper, and the same thing happens, then what?

 

Then you'd still need a healer =)

obviously it's the lack of heals, don't sweat it about being a bad tank, just yet. realize that if you can't heal yourself for more than you're taking damage, you're going to die.

If your teammates were trying to CC mobs to keep you from taking too much damage and you broke their CC......then, yeah. You messed up. It doesn't make you bad. It just means that trying to tank without a healer means that everyone has to try a lot harder to get good use out of their abilities, and even then you might still die.

 

Really, it just sounds like you need a healer. :]

 

 

If there's no healer available, you will have to make very good use of any defensive cooldowns you might have.....And you are going to have to rely on your teammates to use their CC abilities and focus fire to burn down enemies quickly. Sometimes you might even have to let one of them keep aggro on something so they can soak up some damage for you. It makes things more complicated, yes? Healers make tanking so much simpler. :]

Edited December 18, 2011 by belialle

Drawing all of the aggro and holding all the mobs on you is the essence of tanking. As belialle mentioned, so long as you minded crowd control (if any was used) and use the cool downs you have you’re doing things correctly. If you did that then, if anything, I'd say nice job tanking.

 

That said, with a bunch of elites on you, you really need a healer. I'd be curious as to what your three dps were playing. Playing a dps-spec'd sorcerer, I've found I can heal most heroic missions. Having a main-spec healer or another dps-spec heals-capable person certainly makes life easier (and allows for me to dps...heck with two dps-spec players watching our tank we can generally dps non-stop and throw necessary heals on an as-needed basis), but even without another person along, healing is totally doable in a dps spec while leveling. At least for sorcerers, we get the greater number of the same heals as healing specialized players and they’re quite strong. If you were minding cc and cool downs, and any of your three dps were able to heal and weren't using that utility of their class because they're not specialized for it, then it's sort of their fault you were dying.

 

One thing I've found while leveling up is if I ask the group if anyone prefers to heal then occasionally someone comes forward (and if not I have no problem playing the role). In the future it might be worth asking your dps "I know you're all dps, but are any of you capable of healing?"

Edited December 19, 2011 by Lycaena

If you are doing something that needs a tank you need a healer. Simply because you are taking all the damage instead of it being spread. If you are in a group with only DPS then you'll probably not want to actually hold everything. CC something or have a DPS take 1 of them among themselves.