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Dear Tanks

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I’ve been running some flashpoints as my operative healer lately, and there is something that tanks do that drives me up the WALL.

First, the problem tank is constantly running to the next pull super-far ahead of the rest of the group and doesn’t wait for anyone to catch up.  OK, fine, whatever, jerk.

But Then He Leaps. And guess what? Now he’s out of range.  Greaaaat.  All the mobs are focused on the tank, and all he has to help him is a stack of pre-hots.

Badtank

Now, I have to get in range of Sir Idiot, and FAST, which forces me to ROLL.  Possibly twice.  And you know what that means… yep 50% of my resource bar is gone.

As soon as I catch up, I’m spamming my biggest and most expensive heals to catch up on the healing I missed by being out of range, which depletes the rest of my resource bar, since I’m already at slow regen levels from the aforementioned rolling.  Then I’m forced to pop Adrenaline Probe to give me back my energy.  Which works, unless The Idiot has done the exact same thing on the previous pull and my probe is still on cooldown.

In conclusion, tanks, do not leap until your group has caught up.  This should be tanking 101 but it apparently is NOT.

Comments

Dear Tanks — 13 Comments

    • Thanks for dropping by. I had discovered and subscribed to your blog a few weeks ago and THOUGHT I had added to my blogroll but apparently not. DUH! Fixed!

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  2. I don’t think I do that too much (You’ve healed with me as a tank, do I?). But I can tell you part of the reason is preemptively trying to counter overly eager dps. My normal flow would be to wait for everyone to catch up and look ready then engage. However, with most PUGs if I do that, some DPS will engage first, make it harder for me to get aggro, mess up my game plan by splitting adds and prevent me to CC if I am on my sin or Shadow, i.e. generally being a pain.

    I usually avoid doing too much of that kind of eager pulling until I see that the dps starts the fight. But when they start doing that, then I usually try to pull earlier than later. I know I’ve left people out of boss fight (fights where i forgot the door close) a few times because I was trying to prevent annoying dps to get first aggro.

    That being said, I’ve seen tanks at 25% health that don’t even heal themselves and start a fight. So the situation I described certainly doesn’t explain everything and there are just as many stupid tanks out there that there’s stupid dps.

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    • I never have problems with guild tanks. It’s always those pug idiots. You’re right – they not only leap in early but they DO NOT HEAL THEMSELVES between pulls.

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    • I’ve only ever seen you do it when in groups with folks like Viqui and Trantor, where you know they’re not going to wait for you to engage if they feel you’re taking too long. In most cases you’re very good about waiting for the healer to be in position and topped off on resources.

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  4. It must be something unique to max level flashpoints, because I’ve not run across it yet. If anything, I’ve had tanks go too slowly more than too fast, but I’ve not run any max level flashpoints. (I finish a toon and start on another, which is something I don’t do on other MMOs. Then again, that plays right into SWTOR’s strengths.)

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    • What Jess is describing isn’t chain pulling. Chain pulling is when you immediately engage the next group without pause (sometimes pulling before the final MOB of the previous group has been killed.) This can get annoying if folks aren’t giving you time to top off your power pool, or if you’re behind on healing, but thankfully this is relatively rare in SWTOR.

      What Jess is describing is a case where the tank far outruns the healer’s range, forcing the healer to exhaust resources on movement buffs that would have been better used to heal said tank. This can be especially bad if the tank either hasn’t topped off their health before the pull, or if they’re engaging a particularly nasty group–and the absolute worst case: a tank low on health, engaging a particularly nasty group, and not using defensive cooldowns.

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      • Granted, but they often go together, I’ve noticed:

        Tank fights mob, then ruuuuuuns (usually with those stupid rocket-boots) to the next as fast as possible, no recuperation time for anyone, often out-ranging/LoS’ing the healer and grabbing the next mob.

        “Effectively” chain-pulling, I think is a more precise way to put it.

        (This makes me a very unhappy heal-Merc, by the way. Even when I’ve blown my heat up to 90+ per cent trying to keep your hero-tank ass alive on the last pull, it’s all academic if I can’t heal you at all on the next pull because you’re 50+ metres away, innit.)

        Ugh, I should just stop PuGging, shouldn’t I. It’s great anger-management training, though, if nothing else 🙂

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  6. When a ‘sin/shadow or PT/Vanguard do it, it’s just stupidity. Can be stupid too on the part of a Jugg/Guard but it is a stupidity encouraged by their resource system. They are the only class that often ends a fight with with piles of Focus.

    And if you’ve spent your time levelling more or less solo, with a healer companion that doesn’t need resources and automagically keeps up with you, it simply may not occur to them.

    Also what Noreek said about PUG DPS face-pulling if you take “too long”. If I had a quarter for every time some rocket scientist double saber tossed while I was waiting for my healer to meditate or seethe or flip a quarter or whatever, I could pay subscription for the next decade.

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    • I had a tank last night who literally did not stop moving. When we got to the point in the action where you have to make a light side or dark side decision, I knew I had a moment to recuperate, since he couldn’t possibly progress without me.

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