@r-mod not being able to manage your mana generally means the healer sucks. A lot of healers get too absorbed in just spamming their highest heal and try to max out the healing meters. Thus tons of overhealing. I rarely needed even to use a mana pot when healing.
@insaneinsomniac well in that case where the tank sucks, nothing you can do. But that is just the poor skill level of the tank. Ive seen plenty of horrible tanks, all from a guy who insisted his guilds MT solo tanked a boss. I tried to explain to him that you need 300 fire resist to solo tank it or youll be running around while on fire but his ego/inferiority complex wouldnt listen, so i just put on 300 FR and told a priest to heal me and had to tank the boss as dps. Other tanks are so slow it isnt funny some demanding that every single person is rezzed for easy trash in a raid and they go slow as turtles.
A skilled tank should know all the abilities of all mobs and if you grab even a large amount, dps can usually kill them all. Or you can kill them without dps too. I remember i was tanking and brought a healer and pugged dps, i jumped off to skip half the instance and others followed, but a hunter noob didnt dismiss his pet so we pulled half the instance, all the dps quickly died and they were bashing me. Fast forward a few min, me and the healer solo slaughtered half the instance. The dps was like "...". Aka, a skilled tank and skilled healer can do wonders. A tank can do a lot of things to minimize damage to himself too.
@hounder I wouldnt even go to an instance without a skilled healer. That is why I said, I make a list of who I bring and who I dont. A crappy healer will only slow things down, same way a crappy tank would. I found it funny when in guild chat tanks would ask if anyone wants to do heroics, no one responds. Then 5 min later I ask then suddently 20 people start going me me me. Because everyone loves quick exciting runs. I do agree that it is important for a tank to pay attention, there is more to tanking than simply picking up mobs. Minimizing your damage, mob positioning, all that makes a difference.
But grabbing all the mobs for a tank isnt a bad thing, its a good thing. It makes the run faster. But I suggest bringing skilled healers as well. If you are a good tank, skilled healers will beg to come with you. Cause everyone loves quick and easy runs. Bringing a noob unskilled healer is just a disservice to everyone.
Once you experience a good tank, you can never go back.