This is true in fights like High King Maulgar in TBC, and it still holds true today even in Ulduar. However, the best examples are in 5-man dungeons, where for warrior tanks, the pull, and especially the positioning of a pack of mobs, could make all the difference between having an easy-to-control pack of mobs, or a chaotic situation where the warrior tank runs around like a headless chicken trying to salvage the situation.
Classic situation 1: trash pull in Utgarde Pinnacle in Gurtok Palehoof's room. You have 2 hunter types and 2 melee types. The hunter types will shoot you at range unless you move into their melee radius. Suppose a warrior tank charges the first hunter-type, builds aggro on it and his 2 melee buddies, then runs towards the second one, trying to keep all of the mobs attacking him before AoE pulls aggro. What will happen is that as soon as said warrior moves out of first hunter-type's melee range, it will start using ranged attacks, thus said warrior has to play ping-pong between these 2 ranged mobs.
A good pull therefore, will consist of a warrior tank charging the hunter that leads the pack, thunderclapping, and then slowly inching towards the 2nd hunter-type mob, in preparation for a Shockwave. How this works is basically like this: When you charge the first hunter-type, you will have said hunter-mob and the 2 melee mobs on you. By inching, a.k.a. moving slowly towards the 2nd hunter-type mob, you can "convince" the first hunter-type to keep attacking you in melee range.
Classic situation 2: Also in Utgarde Pinnacle, the pack of 4 mobs outside King Ymiron's room, consisting of 2 melee mobs (Shamans), and 2 ranged casters (Necromancers). A warrior tank employs the "good pull method" outlined above. Surprise surprise! Necromancer A (the one that said warrior charged) absolutely refuses to melee, and starts casting shadowbolt and spawning adds. Pull goes horribly wrong, healer dies and party wipes, blaming zzzomfgNUBTANK.
How the warrior should have done it: Charging the first Necromancer is ok, but said warrior should have used Heroic Throw to silence the second caster and make him move to the warrior instead. Either that, or silencing the first one and charging the second one, although this way is riskier since the second caster is much further away. Note that some casters will melee you, while some won't.
In the early days of Wrath tanking, I was already using aforementioned strategies, albeit subconciously. I therefore did not deem it an issue with (other) warrior tanks when one day a friend of mine (we shall call him Z) said to me:
You know har, you can tell a good warrior from a bad warrior from the first pull (of an instance).
Really? How?
From the way he positions the mobs lor.
I thought that would be a natural instinct.
Er, no. When you charge a pack of mobs I can see that you will move them around abit so that shockwave can hit all of them. This guy doesn't.
And it hit me that that was what I had been doing subconciously, and we should not take it for granted that other people should also know how to do it. (Bear in mind, my friends and I mostly play at 500-600 latency, and so positioning tends to be trickier: Target is too far away! Oops.)
(Useful tip: When you charge a pack of mobs and want to immediately Shockwave them, try backing up a couple of steps before doing it if you find that your Shockwave isn't hitting the mob directly in front of you)
From then on, I started noticing how other warriors tended to do it when I instance with my other toons, which prompted alot of times when I said to Z:
Ehhhh this tank.. cannot make it. Dunno how to position mobs.
Yes I am an elitist snob.
Classic situation 1: trash pull in Utgarde Pinnacle in Gurtok Palehoof's room. You have 2 hunter types and 2 melee types. The hunter types will shoot you at range unless you move into their melee radius. Suppose a warrior tank charges the first hunter-type, builds aggro on it and his 2 melee buddies, then runs towards the second one, trying to keep all of the mobs attacking him before AoE pulls aggro. What will happen is that as soon as said warrior moves out of first hunter-type's melee range, it will start using ranged attacks, thus said warrior has to play ping-pong between these 2 ranged mobs.
A good pull therefore, will consist of a warrior tank charging the hunter that leads the pack, thunderclapping, and then slowly inching towards the 2nd hunter-type mob, in preparation for a Shockwave. How this works is basically like this: When you charge the first hunter-type, you will have said hunter-mob and the 2 melee mobs on you. By inching, a.k.a. moving slowly towards the 2nd hunter-type mob, you can "convince" the first hunter-type to keep attacking you in melee range.
Classic situation 2: Also in Utgarde Pinnacle, the pack of 4 mobs outside King Ymiron's room, consisting of 2 melee mobs (Shamans), and 2 ranged casters (Necromancers). A warrior tank employs the "good pull method" outlined above. Surprise surprise! Necromancer A (the one that said warrior charged) absolutely refuses to melee, and starts casting shadowbolt and spawning adds. Pull goes horribly wrong, healer dies and party wipes, blaming zzzomfgNUBTANK.
How the warrior should have done it: Charging the first Necromancer is ok, but said warrior should have used Heroic Throw to silence the second caster and make him move to the warrior instead. Either that, or silencing the first one and charging the second one, although this way is riskier since the second caster is much further away. Note that some casters will melee you, while some won't.
In the early days of Wrath tanking, I was already using aforementioned strategies, albeit subconciously. I therefore did not deem it an issue with (other) warrior tanks when one day a friend of mine (we shall call him Z) said to me:
You know har, you can tell a good warrior from a bad warrior from the first pull (of an instance).
Really? How?
From the way he positions the mobs lor.
I thought that would be a natural instinct.
Er, no. When you charge a pack of mobs I can see that you will move them around abit so that shockwave can hit all of them. This guy doesn't.
And it hit me that that was what I had been doing subconciously, and we should not take it for granted that other people should also know how to do it. (Bear in mind, my friends and I mostly play at 500-600 latency, and so positioning tends to be trickier: Target is too far away! Oops.)
(Useful tip: When you charge a pack of mobs and want to immediately Shockwave them, try backing up a couple of steps before doing it if you find that your Shockwave isn't hitting the mob directly in front of you)
From then on, I started noticing how other warriors tended to do it when I instance with my other toons, which prompted alot of times when I said to Z:
Ehhhh this tank.. cannot make it. Dunno how to position mobs.
Yes I am an elitist snob.
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