Moonkin and threat management 5 comments
updated 8th of Dec 2009
posted 23rd of Nov 2009
by Aeiedil
WoW v.3.2.0
Threat is a concept that should be familiar to most players in World of Warcraft. You hit something, it gets angry with you. Your tank is there to soak up this anger, however sometimes things don't quite go to plan.
What's the problem? (aka. WATCH YOUR AGGRO NOOB!)
As a Moonkin you are a slave to the luck of the dice. You may find yourself (un)lucky enough to have a burst of 100% crit rate at the start of a fight. You may find yourself in a group where the tank is, compared to you, undergeared. You may find yourself with a tank that has focused too much on staying alive than holding threat.
All other ranged classes have means by which they can reduce their accumulated threat. When they find themselves top of the threat meter they are able to do something about it. Yesterday though I found myself having to stand doing nothing on Anub'arak in TOTGC10 with 50 tries remaining.
We ended up wiping with a mere 50,000 hit points remaining. Had I been able to continue straight DPSing instead of having to take 15 or so seconds out (total) then Anub would have been down, and I would finally have Insanity. I like Insanity.
Threat reduction for Moonkin 101
Moonkin currently have 6 options when they find themselves too high on the threat meter. I will list these in descending order from what I percieve to be the best through to worst option.
Please note that I only consider options 1 through 4 as sensible options for a Moonkin. 5 is not meant to be taken seriously, and I feel number 6 is liable to get us killed if you are having that much threat. I know that 3 and 4 do not reduce your threat, but they do reduce the rate at which you gain threat on the target you are risking pulling aggro on. This gives the tank time to increase threat.
1 : Use a Shrouding potion
How to use : Simple, drink a [Shrouding Potion].
Effect : Reduces your threat instantly.
More common effect : You realise you have already used a Potion of Speed, which is why you are currently having threat issues, and so can't use another potion during this fight. Unlucky for you!, time to move on to number 2.
What can you do? : In a fight where you may have threat problems, hold back on using your other potions until you are certain that you will not need a Shrouding potion.
Effect to your DPS : No DPS loss, unless you count the decrease to overall due to being unable to use a Potion of Speed.
2: Hand of Salvation
How to use : Shout out "HOS PLEASE!!!!" (or some variant to that effect) in raid (or on ventrillo) and hope for the best.
Effect : Reduces your threat fairly fast.
More common effect : You get aggro and die because no Paladin gives you HoS for various reasons. None of them tell you this reason though.
What can you do? : Talk to the Paladins before the pull and make sure that at least 1 is aware that you might be calling for HoS, and that if you call for it then it would be beneficial for you to get it.
Effect to your DPS : none (hopefully).
3 : Stop dpsing the boss
How to use : Do nothing.
Effect : Nothing. Your threat will stop increasing (once DOTs have stopped ticking). This will give your tank time to get more threat.
More common effect : You get shouted at for afking during a fight.
What can you do? : Not a lot really, maybe throw around a few heals to look more busy. If there are some adds then throw some DOTs around and just do stuff to them instead for a bit. If you get moaned at for DPSing the wrong target then continue DPSing with a view to going through with option 4 (below).
Effect to your DPS : Partial DPS loss (if you DPS another target), full DPS loss (if you have nothing else to target).
4 : Shadowmeld
How to use : Press Shadowmeld.
Effect : As option 2, with the added benefit of removing you from the threat table while Shadowmeld is in effect.
More common effect : Shadowmeld gets broken by periodic damage and so you are left to fall back to options 2 or 4.
What can you do? : Save Shadowmeld for instances where you are about to pull threat, as in 1 more DOT tick could get you aggro. It will buy a few seconds at least which could save you getting aggro. If all else fails, fall back to option 4 (below).
Effect to your DPS : Full DPS loss.
5 : Die
How to use : Just sit down somewhere, preferably somewhere with something that hurts you. Cleave effects are good for this.
Effect : Resets your threat totally. Side-affect unfortunatly involves your lack of being able to do anything else until resurrected.
More common effect : Your death causes others to panic and a wipe ensues. You then get moaned at for dieing.
Effect to your DPS : Full DPS loss coupled with a full mana loss. Full health loss also not uncommon.
6 : Cower
How to use : Shift into cat form, run to the boss, and use cower.
Effect : Reduces your threat due to not DPSing for a time (as per option 1) coupled with threat reduction from cower.
More common effect : You die because you were in melee range with the hitpoints of a caster and no armour just at the right time to be hit by a point blank AOE effect.
What can you do? : Erase the existence of Cower from your memory.
Effect to your DPS : Full DPS loss, plus you look like a silly cat for a bit. You may face questions as to why a Moonkin is meleeing the boss.
In conclusion ...
As you can see from the options detailed above, we don't have many. Options 3 and 5 are available to all classes. Option 4 is available to all Night Elves (Tauren Druids don't actually have this option of course). Option 6 is just a waste of time. Option 2 depends on having a Paladin that understands that Moonkin aren't shouting for HoS for the sake of it, and that their other options are somewhat limited. Option 1 is not bad as a first resort, however does rely on a BoP Alchemy recipe from Sporregar reputation.
What would be really nice is some way by which we can reduce our threat. Moonkin already have some built-in threat reduction but sometimes that is just not enough. As noted above this is mostly a problem in instances where the tank has not placed enough priority on threat generation, or where the Moonkin has vastly outgeared the tank, or where the tank is just lazy. So far I have not experienced this with a Warrior tank, only really with a Druid or DK tank. This may be unrelated to those classes tanking abilities, but that is not the point of this post. If you find yourself with a tank like this, then don't forget to dump Thorns on the tank. The threat from Thorns will count as coming from the tank. Every little helps.
In an ideal world, we would be given a ranged version of Cower. Moonkin look like they are scared out of their feathers half the time anyway, so why not let us really show it. Hunters can play dead. Mages can make themselves disappear. Priests can fade away. Warlocks can shatter their souls. Give us the ability to show how ruffled our feathers are!
Comments
seriously? BoS doesn't exist anymore. It's actually been quite a while now. Stop dpsing does not reduce threat, you just ahve to wait for someone else to get aggro. Shadowmeld - same. The target just ignores you while you are melded. As soon as you move, the target is back on you if noone has taken aggro yet. Die - are you seriously suggesting this as a threat reduction method? Cower - this is actually the only valid option, as it's the only thing that reduces your threat
Hi mike,
Your feedback is appreciated. BoS was an error on my part, I had intended to name Hand of Salvation (HoS) instead. Calling it BoS is a bad habit of mine, but the paladins in raids with me fortunately know what I mean (I am usually shouting "SALVATION!!!!").
Stopping DPSing doesn't reduce your absolute threat, but if the tank continues DPS then it it reduces your threat relative to the tank albeit at a lesser rate than having HoS or anything that reduces your absolute threat.
The death option is meant to illustrate how bad I think the cower option is. Cower reduces threat by an insignificant amount compared to the overall mana and time cost.
I like this, nice typeout of the different ways to reduce threat. Altough, i found #6 quite funny.
lmao ... i have found out the hard way that i have little aggro avoidance. where i was once a tank and aggro was my goal .... boom is now scary. even the initial ...... wait for tank to get aggro ( count 2 >> 3 secs ) now start rotations i can still hear omen booming in my ears .. uh oh .. im dead. damn i must hold back a few seconds longer. unfortunately i didnt get time to shift to cat > cower .. lol im laughing now though :P
I've found a new way to do this to be honest.
#7 : Find a healer that knows you are going to take aggro and is able to spam heal you enough to keep you alive longer than the mob :)