I’ve been seeing a lot of warriors, druids and death knights taunting to pull mobs in 5-mans lately. Sometimes this is okay, particularly for death grip which helps you position a mob. Typically, however, it merits simply a /facepalm. Here’s why.

At a basic level, taunt works such that it matches the tank’s threat with the person highest on the threat list. After that, it forces the mob to attack the taunting character for the number of seconds listed on the ability. (After that wears off, the melee and ranged aggro thresholds apply, which is explained in an earlier article of mine.)

Unless the taunt ability has a damaging component, it does not generate a flat level of threat on top of the threat-matching mechanic. So if a mob doesn’t have anyone on its threat list, taunting it will generate absolutely no threat. This means a person would be better off pulling with something like faerie fire, heroic throw, icy touch, or anything that generates more than 0 threat.

The only exception to this rule is hand of reckoning, which does generate a flat amount of threat because it deals damage. However, even then, it only does damage equal to half your attack power (plus its base damage of 1). So at 1000 strength, you’d be doing 1001 damage to the mob. This is less than a lot of other abilities, particularly avenger’s shield, exorcism, judgement, etc.

Here’s my point: unless there’s a good amount of threat already established on the mob by someone other than yourself, or unless you don’t have a better option given the situation, you shouldn’t be taunting to pull or pick up a mob. There are situations that call for it, such as when your damaging attacks wouldn’t overcome heal threat, or when your better abilities are on cooldown. Otherwise, however, you shouldn’t do it, so you can save your taunt(s) for when someone peels off you.