I prefer to offtank, tyvm
I know there’s a certain lack of glory in offtanking. To some it’s the shit job that the newbie takes, to others it’s where the lesser geared tank gets shuffled. To me, however, it’s the tank role with the most excitement. Any meathead can sit in front of a dragon and get pounded in the face. It takes a special kind of knuckle dragger to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, tossing off taunts like beads at Mardi Gras, and keeping the healers alive so they can in turn keep the aforementioned meathead from expiry.
In just about every raid that Demogar (the warrior tank) and I deal with, I always quickly snap up the offtanking role. Golems on Ignis, adds on Freya, Icecrown Guardians on Kel, Mistresses of Pain on Jaraxxus. You name it–I’ve rounded it up, kited it, and consecrated it down.
Why do I do it… lack of confidence? My gear not measuring up? Nope, I’m a masochist and I enjoy the adrenaline rush of keeping some ancillary mob under control. And my gear’s just fine, thank you.
If you constantly get stuck in the OT role, don’t despair. Remember, the attempt depends on your success much more than the MT. You’re the one tasked with doing the grunt work, he’s just sitting there getting made into mincemeat. And if he dies? You swoop in and save the day while he has to suffer the indignity of a battle rez. And if you die, well, there goes everyone with the highest global aggro–goodbye to the healers.
The maintank may in the end get the fortune and glory, but the offtank is the one that invariably carries the day. It’s a thankless job, but someone’s gotta do it.
Of course, this all assuming there are adds. If this is Loatheb or Hodir we’re talking about, just switch to dps and have some fun smashing in faces for a change of pace.
Armory Feed
nice post.
I hate it when insecure OT gets MT envy and gets into drama. I also hate is when insecure MT thinks he’s MT because he’s the “better tank”.
The best player I’ve ever run with was an OT.
I haven’t been in a situation where we really needed an off tank (I’m not a raider), but I have essentially filled the role while teaching new tanks how to perform their role. I like it quite a bit from that perspective, so I think I’d like it in a raid environment as well.
I don’t like being stuck in one place hitting the same buttons over and over. I like to run around and do at least a little extra something in the middle there. And it’s fun to see the tank get a little flustered when several mobs jump on him that he wasn’t expecting and then pulling 3 or 4 of them off, “No worries man, I’ll take these off your hands.”
So from the little experience I have with it I’d have to say I agree.
@Pugtor
4 September 2009 at 3:21 pm #
Complete agreement! As easy as it is to let Emalon pound my face, dashing back and forth to pick up the Warders as they spawn makes me feel like I accomplished something in the end.
offtanking is definitely a fun job at times, specially where bosses like emalon, ignis, auriaya, freya are concerned..
but i prefer main tanking :P
oh and a tank gear question for your rhidach… which one of these rings would you go with?
Mark of the Relentless
- http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47243 with a +30 stam gem
The Leviathan’s Coil
- http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45112
i am currently leaning towards the coil
@Rhidach
5 September 2009 at 3:50 pm #
If you can afford to lose the Defense, then 100% the Mark.
Off-tanking FTW..
I was doing Emalon today and the MT died with Emalon at around 25%.. maybe 20%.. I picked up Emalon and the DPS were instucted to nuke.. I had to taunt 3 watchers while keeping aggro on Emalon and the 3 I was already tanking who were dying to cleaves, AoE and whatever else,..
It was great fun, and was successful thanks to some great healers. :)
I prefer OT-ing on XT, Ignis and Razor. Kologarns Rubble and Mimiron. It’s harder, but more fun, for sure!
@PinkRaidFrames
8 September 2009 at 3:39 pm #
Rhidach,
I recall again why I love this blog. You tell it how it is!
I’m regularly mocked for my preference for Off-tanking (I’ve boasting about being an OT for years) but it’s just simply more fun and more challenging.
I wouldn’t leave off tanking adds in Ignis to some newbs. In fact i wouldn’t even leave them to main tank Ignis as well?
Off tanking the adds is particularly challenging because you got to get aggro, pull into the 2 most recent fire pillars, wait till you got 10 debuffs, and taunt the add into the water. You need to then immediately taunt the next mob which spawns around this time in a 25 raid. But if your smart, you would have set 2 off tanks for this scenario :p
Talk about Thankless, try DPS’ing. We are judged by our position on the recount meter, yet nothing takes into account the time we have to spend helping the OT with adds, or chasing after a boss when the MT gets kite crazy. Or if there are stuns that are needed our DPS will drop, yet no one knows that, just that your DPS is not good enough. Finally, whenever an instance fails you always hear the “Not Enough DPS” sacrificial lamb being slaughtered…Remember, without us no one would ever die, except tanks and healers… :P
@ ohmygoogle
what would u have the newb do then? :P
@Falowin – I’ll actually agree with you there. I’ve gotten far more praise for being an OT than I ever did for being a DPS.
I think the sheer numbers of available DPS makes pretty well everyone take them for granted. Unless your numbers are just insanely high then nobody even gives a crap about what you had to contribute to the fight.
“Great Tanking!” and “Excellent Heals!” are said quite frequently, but a lot of people seem to forget the fact that if the DPS weren’t there then they would have all died a long time ago when the healers OOMed on the first group of trash mobs.
Couldn’t agree more – although to be honest, we generally stick the lesser geared and skilled tank on MT duty. He’s going to be getting the most heals, and generally just has to stand there looking pretty. Obviously this isn’t always the case, and many times you just don’t need an OT at all. I prefer to single tank every fight I can, since it means our other tank can DPS and the healers can just focus on me.
Oh – and we finally went Horde with the faction change out. I am one hot Belf.
@Rhidach
10 September 2009 at 3:31 pm #
@Adgamorix: Welcome to the dark side!