Sent to you by Julian via Google Reader:
…and this doesn't include the tanks that are level 8. This is you guys. Yup, you.
In my most recent poll, more than 500 of you let me know how you use Heroic Strike and I'm not going to lie, the results were a little surprising.
The Clickers, 20%
1 in 5 tanks click Heroic Strike. That's a lot guys and gals and that's not a good thing. There's 2 cases with this, one's bad and one's ugly.
a) The Bad Case
You have your main rotation of Shield Slam, Revenge, Concussion Blow, Shockwave and Devastate all bound to keys. This allows you to utilize your left hand to do your proper rotation and allows you to use your right hand with the mouse to click Heroic Strike whenever your rage gets too high. This can work… until you have to move. I bet you don't use Heroic Strike at all when you move. You probably have never maintained Heroic Strike usage while using a cooldown either.
b) The Ugly Case
You click your main rotation and you click Heroic Strike. There's just no possible way you can move fast enough. You're going to be lucky to keep up with your main rotation even. Basically, if you manage to somewhat pull off your main rotation, you'll end up never using Heroic Strike. If you manage to Heroic Strike effective, you'll screw up your main rotation massively. It's lose-lose and it's even worse once you have to move around.
Macro Men, 15%
As a former member of the Macro Men, I can say confidently that you're lazy and if you don't know it, you do now. Heroic Strike lands whenever your weapon swings. Your weapon does not swing at the same time that you do your main rotation. If you're using a Macro, you're missing numerous opportunities to dump rage. You're also making it impossible to use Heroic Strike by itself.
Why would I want to just Heroic Strike?
For bosses that spawn adds. Once you've got a massive threat lead, you can just start spamming Heroic Strike around the time the adds are expected. This will allow you to have your global cooldown free to Thunder Clap or Shockwave immediately once the adds spawn ensuring no one gets hit. The fact that the current content allows DPSers to "take a hit" is no excuse.
I'm no User, 6%
Heroic Strike is a massive amount of your threat/damage especially in today's world of High Rage situations, not using it is doing a gross disservice to your team as you're greatly hindering your own personal dps as well as your groups ability to go all out on their own dps due to low threat. If you're not using Heroic Strike and struggling with threat, now you know why. If you're new to the world of Heroic Strike, try reading this oldie, but goodie: Heroic Strike, more than a Rage Dump.
Wheelers, 6%
Hello my fellow siblings, how are you enjoying the world of Wheeling? This is where I sit currently with my Heroic Strike usage. I'm finding it to be quite effective especially when I have to maintain my regular rotation + Heroic Strike + move + talk on vent. Is it ideal though? I'm not certain. Currently, I bind Heroic Strike to wheel up and Cleave to wheel down and I've definitely noticed that I'll occasionally Cleave instead of Heroic Strike due to miss-wheeling. This is a problem.
So, what are you going to do?
I'm going to bind it to a key as well and go back to the key as my primary Heroic Strike button. In the past, I've always bound Heroic Strike to a key and I've prided myself on being very good at utilizing it and it's because it was bound to a key that I could accomplish this. I still will be using Heroic Strike on my wheel as well since I find it very useful for good Heroic Strike usage while Strafing and Tabbing, but unfortunately, the wheel alone is not enough. Random Cleaves are simply unacceptable for standard tanking.
The Kings of the Key-dom, 53%
Pat yourself on the back, you're doing it right. Now granted, I'm assuming you have your Heroic Strike key in some meaningful area that you can constantly spam easily while moving or talking and maintain your regular rotation at the same time. If you've bound Heroic Strike to Shift-1 and Shield Slam to 1… then you're doing it wrong. If you've bound Heroic Strike to something unreachable like F12, then you're doing it wrong, too.
Adequate isn't Enough
It's true, we play in a world right now that allows us to be sloppy. I guarantee there's someone that doesn't use Heroic Strike that's progressed farther than I have and as a result, has got a whole lot better gear than me too. The Main Tank of your guild could be this person too. That doesn't make it right. If you're clicking, macroing or not even using Heroic Strike… then you're simply not Heroic Striking enough. If you're wheeling Heroic Strike, you may want to consider Binding it to a key like me because unless you've got Heroic Strike bound to Wheel up and Wheel down, you're probably making mistakes too.
The keybound and the converted to keying, remember binding alone doesn't immediately make you better. You still have to press the button. It doesn't do you any good having a key bound to Heroic Strike, if you're unable to use it effectively. So make that key meaningful and pay attention to your rage. It still remains true that if you've got 50+ rage, you should be Heroic Striking until you don't. If you never go below that in an entire fight, then you should literally see zero Swings in your WWStats and All Heroic Strikes.
After all, that's the goal here folks. If it's a high rage situation like Main Tanking Patchwerk, we don't ever want to swing. We want to do a flawless regular rotation and have 100% Heroic Strike usage. And, if you think it doesn't matter… that doesn't make a difference… well the day you walk into Ulduar and wipe at 1% on a brand new boss… I want you to realize that if you're Heroic Striking wrong that you're just as responsible for that wipe as the DPSer that was dead for half the fight.
The time where mediocrity is adequate will not last forever, will you be ready?
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