When I tank a lot of mobs in BWL (e.g., drakes and nef), my back is against a wall, and I can't zoom out. My entire screen is taken up by a big-ass dragon, so I can't really see what's going on. The biggest problem is that I can't see when a mob avoids HS, revenge, sunder, etc, because the message appears above the mob's head, which I can't see. This matters most at the beginning of fights, because it makes me reluctant to call assist too soon. It's also a problem because I can't see when I miss a sunder, and I often let the 5 stacks expire. I only sunder to help the dps--I hate using it to maintain threat.

I've partially overcome this problem by reading my combat log while the fight is happening (LOL), but there's probably something easier to do. I use SCT, so that might be causing problems.

Try using a mod called SCT Damage (I think that's what it's called)
It displays your damage between where SCT regular displays and the top of the screen.

Edit: That said, the problem is an old one. Most of our tanks just have it above their heads in those situations and hope for the best.

The newest version of SCT allows you to place messages in different areas on the screen, did you try messing around with those options?

I haven't downloaded a new version in a long time. I'll definately get the new one so I can change the location of the messages. Thanks a ton.

You could try setting up a new combat window which will just show your attacks, abilities, and spells. There are of couse probably some mods that allows you to change where your out going damage is displayed, but I have never had to put any thought into it.

From playing on my friend's warrior in a tanking situation I understand how frustrating this can be :P

Eavesdrop is really good for this. Its by the guy that makes SCT.

http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/a...eavesdrop.html

Being a tauren tank I know what you're talking about.

First thing is you should have a combat window that is reasonably filtered to only show you important things. If you have a combat window that spams so fast you can't read it, don't even bother.

Second thing, you should run KTM - that way you don't have to see if your shit lands, and the DPS know where they stand.

Barring KTM, you can always turn your camera around and watch the encounter from the opposite side using left click-rotate. The problem there is you are way more likely to screw up if it becomes time to strafe or move.

Theres nothing embarassing about this question... we're blinded half of BWL (especially broodlord the way we do it).

Work on your GUI is my suggestion - KTM is probably going to help you tremendously ... and itll show you HS hits (but not sunder, thats still broken afaik), even if you're the only one in the guild running it.

With sunders, the problem isn't getting to 5. The problem is keeping 5 up. I lose the stack whenever I miss a couple sunders. I try to have the fury warriors and OTs keep up the stack for me, but they're not very reliable. Seeing when I miss a sunder or two would be helpful here. I wish they'd put more +hit on T2 tank gear.

Write a mod for your guild that shares sunder information - it'll never drop again.

I use this mod as well, and I believe it is exactly what the OP is looking for.
Here's an example: http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...306_210818.jpg
Huhuran parries my auto-attack, parries my sunder, I miss with my heroic strike, then finally get a hit with a heroic strike.

It's even worse for druids. You end up with a big smelly bear ass filling 70% of your screen. Not pretty.

Zoom out and increase zoom out distance cvar then look directly down to see the mobs head if you want to. Otherwise you could use a look behind keybind or SCT damage.

Crazy alternative solution time!

Have a Rogue use improved expose armor instead. You will get a little more armor reduction out of it too.

Problems:
1. You need a Rogue to spec suboptimally for dps, but the increase in armor reduction may outweigh this.
2. The Rogue is also sacrificing eviscerate/rupture finishers for a non-damage finisher.
3. What if the Rogue dies? Someone needs to pick up on sundering.
4. What if you die? Other tanks cannot generate threat with sunder if expose armor is active.

Yay theorycraft!

I'm not a tank, but couldn't you just turn your camera to the side, so you're looking at yourself and the mob from the side to have a nice pretty view of everything?

When I'm tanking with my back against a wall in a static position I rotate the camera 180 degrees, so I'm looking at the back of the mob, and myself head on. It takes a bit of getting used to, but at least I can see what's going on.

Exactly what I do. As the MT, your positions are pretty static in BWL, so I just do this most of the time (particularly Broodlord and the three Drakes).

Also, remember to increase your zoom distance. :D

Edit- And I'm all for Improved Expose Armor. As the MT, I rarely ever sunder so I either have an OT on Sunder/TClap/Demo Shout duty or request a Rogue put up an Imp. EA. It's a few less things to worry about.

Play in first person and look up =)

I use SCTD and have the text turned on so I can see what attacks are hitting or missing. For instance it will say 100 (Revenge) and 500 (Heroic Strike). I also turn off WoW's default damage display when in Raids. That helps a lot with the spam.

As far as Sunders go I have OT/DPS Warriors do it. They are also in charge of Demo Shout and Thunderclap if the Tank doesn't have a Thunderfury. I Sunder every once in a while if I have an excessive amount of rage but for the most part I use most of my rage on Block, Revenge, HS, and Shield Slam.

Get SCTD. It's awesome and will make your life much much easier.

I use brdamagetext which puts your outgoing attacks over the portrait of the mob, like how your incoming damage goes over your portrait.
There is also an option to have a window with it in instead which you can put where you want.

I think the OP's point is one reason why MT is often not the most efficient choice for raid-leader.

I find that being raid-leader and MT often leads to relying on second hand information for how a fight is going - precisely because the MT position is often mandated by the fight, and the camera view is so restricted. When I was leading raids on my paladin, I rarely had a problem directly observing what was going on in various learning fights.

I cannot agree more - I used ot play quigon the shaman, and now maraudor the warrior about a year ago, both raid leaders.

They are night and day different in terms of focus and difficulty. I don't wanna insult shamans here - because especially in today's raid things are far more complex... but I got a new officer who is in fact a shaman and his job is to watch whats going on, and yell at people.

Whiteknight's post really is just spot on - look at maexxna.

We learned maexxna and I was blind the entire time to what what going on cause a fucking 5000 lb spider was up in my face the entire day. You have to interpret whats going on via CTRA, etc, and people being honest.

You can still be an excellent raid leader as a MT - but you'll need eyes and ears.

Yeah I just read the rest of your post - whiteknight started as a paladin... amazing how similar things are there. I even use your spec now, lets hold hands!

Also agree with this. We were having problems with healing one day in a raid and I hopped on a healer and got someone else to tank, and suddenly you can actually see what's going on!

For most fights like this (nef, firemaw, twemps, etc) I do just rotate my camera around with left-click. It's a good habit for when you start to do fights like anub'rekhan where you'll need to do some camera maneuvering to do it the most efficient way anyway.