Aggro Management:

[Maube]

borrowed from the WW's forums... being there are a LOT of trigger happy people (heard a LOT of bows twanging before the second sunder wasup)

This stuff seems to be accurate from my experience. Everyone should check it out, not just warriors.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Aggro

http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Aggro

http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Kencos_Research

Some Highlights I found that might apply to some of us:

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Controlling aggro is *not* only a tank's responsiblity. Each and every member in the party is part of the 'controlling'.

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If you do draw aggro, and you are not the tank, the first thing you should not do is run around.

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Drawing Aggro

The following conditions will cause a mob to attack a character if it is already attacking someone else:

1. Taunting the mob, or

2. Exceeding the threat level of the mob's current target by 10% within melee range of the mob, or

3. Exceeding the threat level of the mob's current target by 30% outside melee range of the mob, or

4. The player with aggro leaves the leash range of the mob, leaves the instance, successfully uses an ability to leave combat (such as feign death), or dies, or

5. If certain abilities impair the access of the mob to its higher threat-ranked targets (e.g. root spells), the mob will attack the highest threat-ranked target in its ability range (usually visible for melee mobs or silenced casters, which have a combat range of 5 yards)

6. If certain abilities apply a debuff to a character that cause the mob to consider the player an invalid target. Usually these debuffs have a chance (or certainty) to break on damage, but there are some that don't but still cause the mob to consider the character an invalid target. Examples include Polymorph, Gouge, Fear, Conflagration, etc.

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* Let the tank pull, or be the first to gain aggro after a Hunter has pulled and feigned death. This way, his taunts will always return aggro to him.

* Two or more tanks taunting targets from each other (and generating threat in various ways between the cooldowns) are great for generating immense amounts of hate very fast - since they always have each other as "top reference" in the hate list.

* Because characters standing out of melee range will not draw aggro until they exceed the threat level of the mob's current target by 30%, it's important that the tank keep the mobs well away from the casters. If a caster does draw aggro and you taunt it off him, make sure you also move it away.

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Each point of healing, when completely unmodified by talents, gives 0.5 threat. Replace the proof for (2) by the second person only healing.

Note: overhealing doesn't count, only the actual amount healed. This is easy to demonstrate.

Abilities that put "you gain x mana" in the combat log give 0.5 threat per point gained; life is the same. Examples would be drinking potions, but not natural regen, or the Shaman's mana spring totem.

Abilities that put "you gain x rage" in the combat log give 5 threat per point gained. However, this is not modified by warrior stance. Such abilities include bloodrage, improved blocking talent, unbridled wrath, and 5/8 Might.

Like healing, these only give threat if you are below the maximum.

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There is no threat associated with pulling. The smallest amouts of threat we could generate drew aggro from a body pull, no matter how long we waited after the pull.

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Casting taunt causes three effects. A) The warrior is given as much threat as the person who currently has the mob's aggro. Obviously if the warrior has aggro, this will do nothing. Also, this effect will not lower the warriors threat. For example, if player 1 has 100 threat and aggro, a warrior could have 105 but not aggro; after taunt he would still be on 105 threat. The mob recalculates its actual aggro target. If the warrior was on the mob's hatelist before the original aggro target, the mob's actual aggro target will switch to the warrior. Otherwise, the mob will remember it's original target. C) The normal taunt debuff. The mob is forced to attack the warrior, even if the warrior is not its actual aggro target.

The threat that the warrior gains from (A) is permanent, regardless of the outcome of (. Note that it will not necessarily give the warrior the equal highest threat on the mob. If player 1 has 100 threat and aggro, Player 2 has 109 threat but not aggro, and the warrior has 0 threat, then the warrior is given 100 threat, not 109, so he could easily lose aggro to Player 2 after taunting.

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Note this section is just my opinion.

a) Let the tank pull! Then he will be first on all the mobs' hatelists, and his taunts will always return aggro to him.

Given that targets at range will only draw aggro when they have more than 130% of the mob's target's current threat, it's important for a tank to keep the mobs well away from the casters. If a healer does draw aggro and you taunt it off him, make sure you also move it away.

c) Heroic Strike should not be used as a primary threat ability. Suppose you are tanking a level 62 mob. Let's give him 8,000 ac raw, and even assume he has 5 sunders stacked, for 5750 final ac, so he will take 48.89% of damage. A 15% crit rate is balanced by the 10% penalty to damage in defensive stance, and a 10% chance of a glancing blow chance for 50% damage. Then you can expect the 138 damage from Heroic Strike to contribute 67.5 damage on average, for a total of 212 unmodified threat. This is still only 82% of the threat a sunder would give. Even with a 1.3 speed weapon, you will still do 94% the threat of sunder per time interval.

Best practice is to spam sunder, and use HS in between to soak up excess rage.

d) Revenge ftw. You can expect to do about 345 unmodified threat with Revenge, including damage, against the mob in the example above, which is exceptional for the low rage cost, even throwing in 10 for a shield block. However, there is a rage cost of shield block, in that you will block more attacks, so take less damage, so gain less rage from damage. Two blocks for 180 damage and you can say goodbye to another 4 rage.

e) Demo Shout ftl. Demoralising shout does one sixth the threat of a sunder. Even spammed in defensive stance with defiance, you're doing no more threat than 42dps on each mob. Besides picking up whelps in Onyxia and tanking panthers in the Panther boss encounter in ZG, i can't see a compelling reason to use this.

f) Shield Slam ftl. Given the 6 second cooldown, there is no improvement in threat per second by using shield slam. With shield slam: 3 sunders and 1 shield slam every 6 seconds. About 212 threat per second, unmodified. With the 30 rage from the shield slam you can cast 1 sunder and about 1.2 heroic strikes, assuming you have the talents (which you would with any shield slam build), and are losing 3 rage per Heroic Strike from lost white damage rage (i.e. assuming 90 modified damage per hit). The 4 sunders and 1.2 heroic strikes every 6 seconds gives about 215 threat per second.

[Jeroabem/Sabrianica]

QFT. Why is it that we say "After three sunders you can basically start doing damage to it" (sorry...couldn't resist the quote) or at Onyxia no one except the MT and Secondary MT (Relikk and Smedlock por ejemplo) do any DPS until the Curses of Doom have ticked off? It's because aggro management is a very, very important part of any successful raid beyond the Tier 0 dungeons. While I myself am guilty of stroking the Epeen in a raid, I have taken serious steps to learn how to control my aggro and will comment only on myself as a Rogue:

1.) Rupture vs. Eviscerate: Assuming a 5 combo point finish here. If Damage Done = 1 point of Aggro, and we can safely assume the average 5 CP Evis = 945 non-crit (1.11), that's 945 points of aggro built up instantly. I have easily seen crits on Eviscerate of 1700-2000. Rupture is a Damage over time, and as such, the aggro it generates is not an instant increase, but is built up. It's going to be competing for placement on the list with the other players at the moment, and as such, generating LESS aggro per tick than Eviscerate will. Since Aggro does not decay over time (diminishing return), Eviscerate places you higher on the list than if you use Rupture.

Recommendation: Alternate SnD and Ruptures, saving Eviscerate for when the Warriors are spamming Execute. Our CRITTING Eviscerate does less damage than Execute, and will keep us from stealing Aggro at an inopportune moment.

2.) Feint & Vanish: Feint Rank V (book drop from AQ20) Eats up 800 Aggro - the equivalent of 800 damage. Per Rhoach and Scryll both - Feint often, every time it is available. Save Vanish for when you snag aggro so the tank will be able to retake control of the mob. If your Vanish Timer is not up, burn Evasion and stand there / move to the center of the North end (Onyxia). Do not fight. By evading, you generate 0 aggro while the warrior attempts to overcome the amount of threat you generated. Most Rogues at 60 jump their dodge percentage to the 75 - 80% neighborhood, and our healers are usually very good about keeping people alive (despite having just opened the Libram of Stupidity to chapter 9 "Rogues are more squishy than those in plate").

Recommendation: Do what Rhoach and Scryll said - Feint often.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Jeroabem/Sabrianica