Hit me!

Koriel, over at whatisboom.com, posted this survey for tanks. I thought I would share my answers as a nice little Tuesday bonus post.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary tank?
Markov, Warrior, dual spec 5/15/51 (Cooldowns/Effective Health) 15/3/53 (Threat/Blocking)

What is your primary tanking environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
25 Man Raiding

What is your favorite tanking spell for your class and why?
Warriors have a huge arsenal to choose from, for tanking abilities. I’m going to have to go with Revenge, though, since it’s so rage efficient and relies on my avoidance to proc.

What tanking spell do you use least for your class and why?
Almost certainly Spell Reflection. While I love the spell in concept, and use it whenever I can, too many spells simply ignore it. I wonder if Blizzard should redesign the spell, increase the cooldown on it (possibly by a lot), and allow it to work on more boss attacks. I doubt that will ever happen, though.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your tanking class and why?
At this moment in time, with Anub’arak being the biggest foe in the game, I would say our biggest strength is blocking. We can reach unhittable easier than anyone else, and our block value is simply unmatched by paladins. Many guilds rely on warrior off-tanks for Anub, with good reason. We simply are the kings of block.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your tanking class and why?
Effective health. Compared to the massive health pools of druids and paladins, warriors are falling behind. This is an issue with gear scaling, since paladins get more out of stamina than warriors.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best tanking assignment for you?
Warriors can adapt to any assignment. I can’t think of a single fight where a warrior tank can’t fill any and every tanking role. I tend to prefer being the main tank, though.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with most and why?
I can’t say I’ve ever tanked with anything other than a warrior.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with least and why?
Same, N/A.

What is your worst habit as a tank?
Biting off more than I can chew. As a tank, my natural instinct is to pick up everything that moves. As a result, I sometimes charge headlong into one more group than I can really handle. This is especially true of trash in instances, since I often go faster than my healers can handle, and wipe my raid.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while tanking?
Honestly, I don’t have any big pet peeves. Some people complain about trigger happy DPS, but I can’t say I’ve found any that actually pull off me. Some people hate being blamed for wipes, but I own up to it when it’s my fault and have never been blamed when it wasn’t. If I had to choose something, I would say people judging me by my gear, but that’s no longer an issue. When I had just reached 80, I would get people remarking that they didn’t want such a poorly geared tank in heroics, but I never heard a complaint once the ball got rolling.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other tanks?
I think warriors are in a good place, right now. We can compete on any fight, and have our moments to shine. I would probably say the same about the other classes.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a tank?
I use Rawr to evaluate my gear and put together Markov chains to evaluate my survivability. In game, I try to just be objective about my performance and ask myself a few questions. Did I live through the encounter? If I died, could I have prevented it? Did anyone else die in the encounter? If they did, could I have prevented it?

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?
A lot of people don’t know how blocking works. Those that haven’t played a sword and board style tank often don’t realize that a blocked attack still does damage, and that shield block does very little against the big hits in the Crusader’s Coliseum.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new tanks of your class to learn?
How to pick up mobs. Warriors have all the tools to pick up a group of incoming enemies, but knowing how to use them takes time. Bloodrage, Heroic Throw, Charge, Intercept, Shield Slam, Cleave, Thunderclap, Taunt, and Shockwave all play a role in tough pickups. 5-mans really hone this ability, but too many tanks just skip past those on their way to raiding.

Effective Health or Avoidance and why?
Effective Health. The difference in survivability between a boss needing 2, 3, or 4 attacks to kill you is massive. Avoidance is good if you are taking a lot of small hits, but that situation is rare. Moving forward, Effective Health will continue to be good against hard hitting bosses, and Avoidance will continue to be good for trash packs and dual-wielding bosses (if they ever show up).

What tanking class do you feel you understand least?
Death Knights. I know nothing about the mechanics of their class, the sorts of abilities they use, or their strengths/weaknesses. The only experience I’ve had with Death Knight tanks was as my mage, and I was not paying attention to their abilities at the time.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in tanking?
I’m a big fan of Power Auras for tracking my ability cooldowns. With that and IceHUD, I’m able to keep everything near my character, so I can keep an eye on the battlefield.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your tanking stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?
I try to balance my gear, but I favor effective health. In Rawr, you can set the ratings to favor some stats over others. If Survivability = 1, then Mitigation = 0.8 and Threat = 0.6. That’s the way I normally favor different items.