Tank like a girl

There aren’t really a multitude of addons out there that are specifically written to assist tanks. Today’s reviewed addons however are most helpful if you are a tank. I have been using them extensively for a month or two, and I fully endorse them. Originally I had wanted to make a companion video, but that’ll have to wait for another time.

Step 1: to use this, you need to run with name plates turned on. Press ‘V’ and enjoy seeing nameplates over the head of all neutral and hostile mobs.

Step 2: Install Tidy Plates, which is basically an addon to skin the default nameplates Blizzard gives us. TP’s default skin is extreme fug though, if you ask me.

Step 3: Install Tidy Plates: Threat as theme for Tidy Plates. You need to have both TP and the threat module enabled. Runs out of the box, but can be adjusted. You can turn off display of nameplates for neutral mobs, e.g., or adjust size, opacity for the various threat levels.

What does the skin do overall? It makes the nameplates respond based on the amount of threat you have on the mob. If you set the addon in tank mode, nameplates of mobs you currently do not have aggro on, are large and red. Mobs that are aggro’d on you but another player is just about to snag them off you will be framed in yellow. Mobs you hold safely have green frames. The less threat you have, the bigger the nameplate. Especially in AoE situations, this makes actually locating stray mobs very easy, and you can just click on the large nameplate for targetting. You can freely define the threat threshholds that will have the color and behavior of the nameplates change.

In my example screenshot, I have full control over the pull, all mobs are on me. I managed to frontload a lot of threat, the closest party member is only sitting at 4% threat. All green, all safe. But the less threat you have, the bigger the nameplate would be.

 
If you’re strugging in larger pulls, this is a fabulous visual aid, and I wouldn’t want to miss it anymore. On top of that, it has a low memory footprint and won’t tax your resources. Give it a spin or discuss it on Tankspot, as the author is specifically looking for feedback from us.

P.S.: if you are not of the tanking kind, the nameplates have a DPS mode, which means they would be all green for you, if your threat level was safe, and go yellow as soon as you gain threat on the tank to your personal warn level. Big and red when you have pulled aggro. Could be useful, right?

I got a 24″ widescreen monitor for Christmas, and it’s been since TBC since I discussed my whole UI, so expect a dissecting the UI post very soon.

P.S.S.: Another player who tanks like a girl made a demo video. Enjoy, and thanks for the link, Gabbu. Another review can be found over at Pwnwear.