Tanking vs Knockback spellsFollow

They are 98% of the time annoying. They scatter mobs and make it harder to regain or gain control of a pull.

That being said I have had a few occasions when DPS has used these effects to knock mobs back to me. Just wanted to say that it was sweet when that happened.

I agree with the annoying part. I've had someone use knockback effectively once (the knockback pushed all the mobs into a corner closer together). Usually I just grumble to myself and go on tanking. I won't bring it up in party chat unless they repeatedly pull extra groups with it.

I won't get started though, I could go on a page-long rant about the annoying things that dps like to do in pugs.

i use it on my moonkin as a ghetto interrupt, since they dont have a normal interrupt. its also good for dealing with adds for a moment, gives the tank an extra moment to pick them up.

but yes, knockbacks are annoying to tank with. i ususall just wait till the mobs come back to me after anything like that is used.

i think they did that on purpose zaria. my feeling is blizz wanted to level the playing field so to speak when it came to group quests. much easier to cast stuff when the guy whos knocking people back is attacking the highly armored plate/bear tank. or warlock in meta form.

Death's Grip from friendly DK's is ocassionaly annoying BG's. You waste your sprint running to a target and just as you're about to throw a big hit on it the stupid DK behind you decides to pull your target away. Good riddance ^^

Whenever I give people a hard time about the knockbacks, I always get, "Oops...wrong button." Hate that excuse. Move the friggin' button then so you're not so likely to hit it. Especially when it's happened three times during the first half of a dungeon. Otherwise, maybe next time I'll "oops" and hit Divine Shield instead of Righteous Defense ;D

Thunderstorm for Shamans is a mana regen ability, 8% mana regen with a 45 second cooldown, makes it very much for PvE grouping, especially when you have a group chain pulling, say for something like Heroic Strat timed run.

But still being elemental they should be far enough away from the action to be able to use TS without it hitting any mobs. I mean it only has a 20 yard radius, 24 yards talented, shouldn't be that hard to stay out of range to avoid the knockback, but still gain the mana regen from using it.

I can't help it, I love when someone drops a fear or knockback in a large group of Mobs.. Just the satisfaction of watching a whole bunch of critters/creatures or other badness go flying for once instead of me brings a smile to my face and for a second makes it feel like that I really am an epic hero surrounded with other people from an action flick or fighting anime.

On a side note however: If I'm tanking on my druid it can get annoying as I have to run all over hell and creation to pick the mobs back up... I'm also not a very good tank yet :)

Our elemental shammy knockbacked all the zombie adds on Gluth after a Decimate into Gluth!!


30 secs later we were all running back in with me telling him nicely on vent not to try that again.

As someone already mentioned, when you use the knockback, you risk tossing the mobs out of range of the next AoE threat attack by the tank. If you've pulled aggro, you do not want to be costing your tank threat. Your tank does not expect the mobs they have located to their liking to suddenly go flying all over the place. It puts the tank in the position of having to react to something unanticipated instead of controlling the pull on their terms. Controlling the pull on their terms is what good tanks do. A good tank will be able to accommodate unforeseen circumstances, but players don't need to be making those circumstances for them.

I don't mean to sound derogatory, but this is part of the problem. Tanks say, "Please don't do that." Someone who is not the tank says, "I know what I'm doing...don't worry about it."

Don't do it. Don't pull threat in the first place and you won't need to knock mobs back. It's not a straight knockback that relocates the mobs directly back in parallel lines...it fans them out and makes an absolute mess.

The application of the knockback for keeping the zombie chow away from Gluth is absolutely fantastic. It worked for us tonight. It's the only consistently useful application of the knockback I've seen thus far. Like a warrior's Mortal Strike, it's a primarily PvP ability that has extremely limited applications in PvE.



Trust me, it's the spell/ability. I don't care who you are. If you're a PUG member in one of my groups, you get one request not to do it. After that you get a ghetto port out of the dungeon.

My druid is a tank. My paladin is a tank. My warrior is prot at 60. My DK will be a tank.



Not for multiple mobs, you don't. When you use the knockback, it fans them out. Instead of X mobs nicely clustered in front of the tank, it's Xe mobs spread out around the tank. Smart dps don't pull threat such that they need to use it as a personal defensive strategy. They watch Omen and know what their character is capable of. If they DO pull threat, they don't make the situation worse by scattering the mobs all over the place.



My question to then would be...are you a tank? Have you ever tanked a heroic? A raid? If not, how do YOU know what a tanks AoE threat range is? Is it glyphed? What kind of tank is it? What happens to the tank if the three mobs are so fanned out that he turns to nab one and another is at his back? What happens if 1 or more of the mobs are casters?

Not all tanks speak up when someone does something silly. I do.



Sure. Not when you pull threat though. That's just sloppy playing "fixed" by sloppy playing.

Aurelius,... you probably haven't played with a good shammy that knows how to use it.

The shammy, a ranged DPS will be Away from the tank.. so there is no way he can blast the mobs and spread them out. In fact, if the mob is on a beeline towards the shammy,... the blast will knock that mob back to the tank directly.

U might have played with shammies who DPS stacked on the tank? That would be kind of strange right now coz no ele spec shammy would use their fire totems for that. Maybe after the next patch when they get upgraded.. but not now.

Don't call it sloppy playing. Shammies have no control over who and how the chain lightning hits. In the groups that I run with, we move fast and we unleash all out DPS because we can. e.g. CoT was done with more than 5 minutes to spare. But the tank is a bear. So sometimes during an odd CD of their taunts and our crits, pulling mobs off the tank can and do happen. (unlike Prot pally or DK tanks who have an easier time holding aoe aggro)

Knockbacks are tools which are very useful. It just need good positioning for it to work.

Thats why I said mostly -
But to be fair, it shouldnt be used if its going to affect the tank in any way. Your saying to use it when the mobs arent in range, sure that sounds viable and less disruptive. But shamans also have mana spring totem for regen and water shield, to be fair you shouldnt need it all that often.

For the casters who are defending their right to use the spells that knockback: Sure you have the right to use it, I mean WoW gave it too you to use. From now on, Im going healing spec and dps the whole fight JUST BECAUSE they gave me DPS spells, I should use them. How does that make any sense? Sounds just as stupid as the caster using a knockback so your tank cant taunt it properly, good job, you just defeated the purpose without realizing it.

Most tanks have a method to their madness, a knockback spells cause confusion. Dont make their job harder than it already is. Sounds simple enough to me? How is this anything to fight about, dont use it unless the tank says its ok.



Come on, seriously? There is a time and place for spells like chain lightening, you should only be using them when its safe for an AoE spell, and the tank has enough aggro to handle the chain lightening. If you are using it at any other time, it is actually very sloppy playing.



Acutally this is a horrible thing to do, the tank runs towards me to save me (healer), you knock the mob away, now he has to chase this mob around, while you are continuing to dps. The tank is not gaining aggro on the other mobs at this time. Next thing you know, ALL MOBS are running towards me because im continuing to heal. Theres another wipe.

Can you people use common sense, taunting is fairly simple. Find the problem mob, taunt it, problem solved in most situations. You just added on 2-3 steps by using a knockback spell, and caused mass chaos/confusion.