This is a plugin for Recount that adds information useful for evaluating a tank's performance. You must have Recount installed for this addon to work. It will add a mode to Recount called "Healing Required", which is the amount of healing each person took from other players. Put another way, it is the same as Healing Taken minus self healing. The lower this number, the better.
Simply put, a better tank will require less healing. He or she uses cooldowns and self-healing abilities well to reduce or counter incoming damage, so that healers don't have to. A tank's responsibilies are, in order:
- Keep Aggro: A tank must generate enough threat that other players can do their maximum dps without fear of aggro-ing the boss. So they don't die.
- Fight Mechanics: Many fights require that the boss be moved to certain places, or turned in certain directions. So people don't die.
- Make Healing Easy: Once the two points above are covered, the job of a tank is to stay alive. The less healing he/she requires, the better he/she is doing at that job. Being easy to heal also frees the healers to focus more on keeping everyone else in the raid alive. Simply using Damage Taken is not a good metric, especially for DKs and Paladins who can do a lot of self-healing. This addon gives you a better metric.
- Dps: If there is no button left for a tank to push that will assist in any of the tasks above, he/she should help by using high damage abilities. Many tanks are used to seeing damage meters, and so are tempted to prioritize this above #3. There may be cases when that is appropriate - such as when your raid is close on an enrage timer and healing is not an issue - but in general it is not appropriate. This addon seeks to correct that trend by offering a different number to optimize (because everyone loves seeing numbers!).
Be careful when comparing two tanks or two fights with this number. Like Healing Done, Healing Required can change a lot depending on the fight and the activity of other players. In a raid with two tanks, the one who actually tanks the boss more will likely require more healing - that does not mean he or she is a worse tank. Also, very active healers can "steal heals" from a tank who would otherwise heal his or her self. Finally, some fights have mechanics like high-damage periods that depend on the performance of the entire raid to shorten. In those cases the entire raid's performance will affect Healing Required. If you keep these factors in mind as you get a feel for Healing Required, you will be on your way to learning what makes a better tank.
