Post deleted by Little_Hawk
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This is the area a tanker can reach without moving from his chosen spot. This is going to be the most taunt-saturated area around the Tanker and, in most cases, among the safest places to be during the battle. For most tankers this is a 5 foot range and produces a 5 foot radius region of control.
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Quickie edit, not necessarily safest place to be but often the safest area to attack. I'll continue reading. The gauntlet radius is a radius about the attacked enemy not the tanker and can vary in feet for various time limits. The pbaoe taunt aura makes a lovely circle around the tanker.
I will delete this post in 10 mins.
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I deal with Gauntlet bursts later on. Early part about Melee Range is more discussing the aggro gained specifically for attacking a specific enemy, not Gauntlet, which hits enemies around the original target.
Thrythlind's Deviant Art Page
"Notice at the end, there: Arcanaville did the math and KICKED IT INTO EXISTENCE." - Ironik on the power of Arcanaville's math
You are looking at tanking through the eyes of a tabletop gamer who uses attack templates and tape measures. The biggest tanking trade secrets are found in continuing to do so by also looking at what the enemies can do too. Now thats where we go from primary tanker basics as is your title and moving on. I like your guide. 
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You are looking at tanking through the eyes of a tabletop gamer who uses attack templates and tape measures. The biggest tanking trade secrets are found in continuing to do so by also looking at what the enemies can do too. Now thats where we go from primary tanker basics as is your title and moving on. I like your guide.
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Yep, I only barely touched on adapting for the enemy. basically it was cones that got me, I basically got frustrated with telling people to stop standing behind me.
Thanks for the approval of my guide.
^_^
Thrythlind's Deviant Art Page
"Notice at the end, there: Arcanaville did the math and KICKED IT INTO EXISTENCE." - Ironik on the power of Arcanaville's math
I like it! My emp/rad's favorite place to be is hovering just above the tank, and dropping irradiate on the melee range...your pbaoe circle. There is a sweet spot I can usually find to hover in that doesn't take too many aoe's, and anything that I do catch can be cleaned up with healing aura. Granted that the tank is holding aggro, the only time I would faceplant is when the baddie nukes. My solution to that is knowing who is likely to nuke and watch for the pre-nuke signs and didi, or just avoid this spot and hang out with the ranged people.
'Understanding that you still have a lot to learn is key to the path to wisdom' - (Some guy somewhere, or maybe I just made it up, I don't know.)
The are a number of problems that I have seen or heard of with regard to tanking. Some of these are due to the misunderstanding of the Tanker, but they are almost as often a result of a misunderstanding on the part of the non-Tankers in the team.
Primary Tanker is a mindset that takes a bit of getting used to as it involves doing things that may be considered counter-intuitive to the average player. There is a big difference in playstyle between a Primary Tanker and a Second Tank, and an even bigger difference between a Primary Tanker and a Scranker.
The first thing we have to consider is the areas that a tanker maintains control over.
First is the Melee Range.
This is the area a tanker can reach without moving from his chosen spot. This is going to be the most taunt-saturated area around the Tanker and, in most cases, among the safest places to be during the battle. For most tankers this is a 5 foot range and produces a 5 foot radius region of control.
Further out we have the region of the Taunt Aura. (The circle here should really go further out, but this still works for a basic diagram to a degree...it gets the basic idea out.)
The taunt aura of most power sets extends a little bit further beyond the tanker's melee range. This is the second most taunt-saturated region around a tanker and is still heavily taunt controlled as most taunt auras cycle rapidly. For many tanks this is around 10 to 15 feet in radius, but I'd trust more to 10 feet in radius than 15.
Past the taunt aura radius is the Point Blank Radius. (again, the circle should be bigger, oh well.)
For most tankers this goes out at around 15 feet. Some of the smallest PBAoEs aren't much larger than the radius of the tanker taunt auras others will extend 15 or even 20 feet out. The largest PBAoE's however, are things like Consume which are mostly for a purpose other than damage or taunt. (Though I will admit to using Consume for taunting purposes once or twice). Also note that SS's Hand Clap should not be considered for Taunt purposes. Hand Clap is designed to give you and your team a bit of breathing space when you need it, it is not designed to help you keep Aggro.
Those ranges translate into Aggro Control Zones.
The melee range has the most control because any enemy there is subjected to melee attacks, taunt auras and PBAoEs. Thus they are constantly getting hit by taunt effects.
Further out, the Taunt-Aura range is a little less saturated, but the quick cycle of the taunt auras and the occasional PBAoE attack of heavy damage means this is still a fairly well controlled area.
Beyond that, in the PBAoE radius, only the PBAoEs hit enemies here, and it is here and beyond that a Tanker will find the most need for Taunt. However, too much focus on this region will give a tanker minimal effect on the outer areas while severely impacting the inner circles of control. In general, a tanker should extend their look out that way only if a particular enemy is giving your team trouble. Mostly, that region will be for the controllers, blasters and Torpedo scrappers.
If the tanker does need to intervene, the temptation will be to move towards the point of trouble, but unless your central circles are mostly clear, this is a bad idea. In moving, you are the most likely to lose aggro from the enemies on the region you are moving away from. Instead, this is the case you want to save taunt for. Taunt once and go back to cycling through the enemies around you.
One should not focus on just one opponent when Primary Tanking.
Gauntlet is an excellent tool, and focusing on one opponent limits you to just One Gauntlet Burst.
This enhances one section of your central circle, but leaves others less touched and risks more leakage. Even if you account for Incindental Gauntlet Bursts produced by PBAoEs and (possibly) Taunt Auras. You are still limiting your effective taunting saturation by repeatedly hitting someone that you have probably firmly under control.
By comparison Cycling Gaunlet Bursts enhances the effective taunt-saturation of both the inner and second circle around you. The diagram here only showing how much more taunt saturation you get with cycling through five targets. Also note that these gauntlet bursts overlap with each other and help to keep up the aggro on enemies they may just barely be about to break aggro.
Understanding this lets a team have much better aggro management.
AoE effects from Defenders, Blasters and Controllers, for the most part, should be kept in that central area of control so that the aggro is less likely to hit the user of that AoE. On the outer edges of the tank's control, AoE should give way to single target effects directed at places of trouble.
Defenders with a lot PBAoE heals, buffs or debuffs will want to stay close the tanker in that center circle as they are less likely to steal aggro from there.
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There are specific situations, however, that a tanker and a party should be aware of.
The first is the AoE Death Zone. (The AoE Death Zone is the whole set of circles, not just the first.)
If the enemies you are fighting use a great deal of area effect attacks (such as when dealing with Nemesis), then you should make sure that there are no squishies near you when you start the attack and when try to taunt attacks toward you. Otherwise, regardless of whether you have aggro or not, the AoE will kill the squishies around you.
Likewise, Non-Tankers need to be aware that the current enemies are using a lot of AoE and need to remember not to crowd around the Tanker in these cases.
The second situation is the Cone Death Zone.
This is mostly a concern with Archvillains and Giant Monsters that either have massively damaging cone attacks or cone attacks that lay down status effects or debuffs. Some common enemies (like BA Totems) also have very dangerous cones, but in general you're only going to be worrying about this situation with AVs and GMs.
When facing such enemies, the Tanker needs to grab aggro and move around to the AVs back. This should make the AV/GM turn his back on the non-tankers and prevent the non-tankers from being exposed to its cones. Technically, the non-tankers could move around behind the AV/GM, but, in general, it is easier to move one character than 4 or more without unfortunate incident.
This is important Tankers. When fighting GMs, make sure there are NO squishies behind you. Likewise, squishies, make sure not to stand behind the Tanker. He will not act as a shield and block part of the cone. I can't count how many times this could have saved a person a death while dealing with Lusca.
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In relation to Primary Tankers, other ATs have specific Melee Areas of Operation that I would suggest.
The purple oval is the area that I would suggest for "Torpedo Scrappers". Torpedo Scrappers being those Scrappers that are designated specific targets to prefer over others. In general, as a Torpedo, I would still hesitate to range past the tanker's region of control, but if the ranged ATs are in trouble or otherwise occupied, then you should make brief forays outside. Going too far, however, risks drawing unintentional aggro from nearby spawns and making a bad situation (otherwise you wouldn't be diving so far) worse.
Second Tanks can also be called Apprentice Primary Tankers. They have the concept of aggro control, but still tend to fixate on defeating opponents as adverse attracting attention. Likewise, Second Tanks forget that movement risks losing aggro, and will tend to jump at new flanks before a current flank is finished. Secondary Tankers take some pressure off the Primary Tanker and the Controller, especially if a flanking action happens and someone needs to hold a battle off until the team as a whole has a full handle on the situation.
Satellite Scrappers are generally AoE heavy scrappers, though Scrankers fall in this category too, that walk through the region of the Tanker's control and cut down whatever they run across. They are different from a Second Tank in that their task is elimination not occupation. They are supposed to focus on and defeat enemies, not bounce around.
Satellites and Second Tanks should also be responsible for leakers that pass through the Primary Tankers aggro zones.
Likewise there are suggested Ranged Areas of Operation
Dependent on Power Set choice, some Blasters, Defenders and Controllers (I'm hesitant to include them, but for some it's true) are of more use when close to the battle than they are far away. In this case, they should try to hug close to the tank (assuming no AoE threat) so as to be close to both enemies and friends. Other ranged figures should hold back, close enough to fall under healing and buff auras, but preferably in outer edges of the Tanker zones of control.
In most cases, they will want to be behind the tanker, but, as stated previously, against AVs and GMs the more secure and safe place should be facing the Tanker and standing behind the enemy.
Thrythlind's Deviant Art Page
"Notice at the end, there: Arcanaville did the math and KICKED IT INTO EXISTENCE." - Ironik on the power of Arcanaville's math