Army of the Dead, oh how I hate you

What I'd like to talk about today comes from experiences I've had with a little Death Knight ability called Army of the Dead. See, this ability is one of the most frustrating things you can use while you are NOT the tank, and it got me thinking about some of the things that people do while I'm tanking that really set me off. Stick to these tips, and you will have a happy tank. A happy tank that just might actually get his main character to run that next heroic because he likes you so much, he wants you to have fast, effortless badges.

Army of the Dead: I'm gonna start with this one because it's what got me thinking in the first place. I'd like to explain something beforehand, though. I think this is a really cool ability, and it's very defining of the class. In fact, it's what got me most excited about Death Knights from the pre-release videos. The problem lies with execution. See, it's not, from what I can tell, meant to be used during a boss encounter. Why do I think that? Well, if you read the tooltip of the spell, it states "Summons an entire legion of Ghouls to fight for the Death Knight. The Ghouls will swarm the area, taunting and fighting anything they can. While channelling Army of the Dead, the Death Knight takes less damage equal to Dodge plus Parry chance.". Re-read that second sentence. They taunt. They TAUNT. Now, tanks often get frustrated when a hunter accidentally leaves Growl turned on for their pet, and that's only one attacker. This is a Legion of ghouls. As a tank, I am trained to watch my Target of Target window for any change, along with several alerts when I lose aggro. When I see something amiss, my first reaction is taunt it back, find the answer later. But in this case, all that will happen is the boss will be taunting back off me by one of your stupid ghouls. And these ghouls are not meant to tank. In fact, they will systematically be one-shot until they are gone, and in the mean time, I'm not getting attacked, so you have nerfed my threat. Although there have been changes to improve tank threat when not being targeted, I still rely on some incoming attacks to maximize threat. So you waste a long cool-down, you nerf the tank's threat, and you generally just piss me off. Do some reading on which bosses can and can't be taunted by this ability, and save it for then.

Overanxious DPS: Hey, Mr. Rogue. Guess what? I have 30,000 more hit points than you do, as well as talents that flat reduce the damage I take. That boss won't even bother to chew when he gets a hold of you. Why do you insist on engaging the encounter for me? I am perfectly capable of grabbing that patrol, or starting this fight. I don't need you to do it for me. Sure, you might get lucky and my tank reflexes will kick in, sending me running for my snap aggro button, but why risk it? What profit you to begin DPS'ing before anyone if you lay flat on the ground by the end? And while we're at it, don't go straight into your DPS rotation, blowing all your cool-downs at the start of the fight. Walk up, get in position, and give me a three count on a boss. It's going to be a long fight, and if you die in the first seven seconds, it'll be that much longer, except you won't be a part of it. You're playing this game for fun, or at least I assume that is the case. Why would you jeopardize that fun by attacking early? Just chill a second longer, and slowly ramp up into your rotation, because next time I may just suppress that tank reflex.

Stand BEHIND the tank: In a perfect world, this wouldn't be an issue. Sure, I can understand jumping the gun on DPS during a fight. I've been guilty of it myself. But this one really gets me. Imagine this: you're in a heroic. See that patrol coming? Well, so do I. And as a tank, I have learned that patrol's path. I know how close they will get. I am standing in a place that will either give me the best chance of snap aggro, or will allow me to avoid pulling them or double pulling two packs. So do the world a favor, and get behind me. Unless I tell you otherwise, always ALWAYS stand behind where I am standing. I'm there for a reason, I want you there too. Think of the tank as your shield. You wouldn't run at an opponent with your shield behind you, would you? No, that would be stupid. So don't do it. Grant me, at the very least, that little luxury.