So never tanked and never been much of a leader in groups, but I decided last night its time to dip my toes into the tanking world.
saved up a few gold from my alt, got a few low level items saved up and I have rerolled from this dwarf , he will become to my new bank alt, to a nice ankle biting gnome warrior.
I think I know some of the very basics, but where do you learn how to tank, I don’t want to be that person who wastes peoples time by being unprepared, so can anyone point me in the right direction?
I was thinking tank spec from the start, protection 10-60, I guess leveling solo will be a royal pain, but I also need to use the time to learn how to tank and try to avoid any bad habits from the start.
I really like the wowhead classic info , however as a rogue - i always find warriors who keep sundering do so much better in terms of threat. A lot will do a single sunder, then start doing some kind of dps. Maybe mention at the beginning of an instance you’re new and mark up targets, ask for folks just to wait a moment while you get some rage.
Also, don’t charge / pull and immediately taunt. Taunt is saved for when you lose aggro, when a mob just won’t look at you
I agree it is not a good idea to spec prot from 10. You can still tank just fine with talents elswhere as long as you have shield. Your playstyle doesn’t change almost at all with full prot spec, so you will still be able to learn to tank in dungeons while not wanting to kill yourself when soloing.
Tanking is just about holding some aggro sometimes until 60
If dps try too hard they will take aggro, especially from a warrior on aoe trash.
usually you wanna pull slow and small unless 3 mages etc and then focus one big guy and kind of keep aggro on others when u can, usually that means a range pull or charge pull and auto attacks + a few sunders and shouts like a battle shout when ppl are in range of it, and demoshout for aoe aggro and reduce dps on enemies.
Thunderclap is good for getting aoe aggro at the start but you won’t be able to hold aggro with it like retail. It does pretty mediocre threat etc, and usually you wont have enough rage to spend on heroic strike etc.
Most of your time is spent on sunders, auto attacks and shield block + revenge unless arms tanking with ravager in aoe farming which wont matter to you now so ignore that.
So with a pack of mobs at low level my only option is to tab-sundering on each mob and taunt any that get away from me, do warriors get any AoE abilities for tanking, I looked at both pally and druid but was informed its best to go warrior as a tank, as the others you tend to get asked to heal?
I picked up engineering for the dynamite / bombs as I thought a little extra aoe couldn’t hurt.
With groups who don’t just start nuking the mob before I can even point a finger at them I havn’t had these issues tbh
Tho alternating between bloodrage and dynamite from engineering between each pool does help with snap AoE threat and atleast on my level the damage and threat is not that different so it feels like I’m sacrificing a chunk of armour, avoidance and an interupt for minimal threat increase
Does DPS threat get better for warriors at higher levels?
For aoe packs when they aren’t close to other packs I like to open with charge thunderclap only once at the start then demoshout and battle shout to re apply and or use if melee group / casters are in range of b shout, and start sundering things and auto attacking, if you don’t have a dps meter and threat meter I would recommend it highly since it makes planning ahead much easily, like knowing which lemon in your group is going to pull aggro by dpsing too fast.
Warriors have pretty god damn poop aoe but are by far best single target tanks in the game, which is why ppl are willing to take druids and pallies for tanking dungeons to level but not in endgame raids etc. Trash however is not as important as the bosses etc.
Druids and pallies have mana issues and pallies dont have taunt, while warrior has mockingblow, taunt and aoe taunt, plus situational cd’s like last stand, retaliation and shield wall, shield wall being a 75% dmg reduction ability for 10 sec.
It does get better but also people get better, so one of the huge problems of low levels is how people just spam dps as fast as they can and take aggro and then die as if they were playing on retail. But by say 50+ they have gotten the hang of things for the most part.
Correct. It’s single target threat, and switch to a different target if they get aggroed to someone else.
Or you can just keep switching targets every swing to keep it balanced.
Sunder Armour and Taunt.
This can be a pain in the bum when there’s less coordination in groups. If you communicate to your group by marking with Skull / Cross who the DPS should attack, then your DPS groupies can avoid threatening any of the mobs. If you all focus one by one, then you should find it much easier to keep all the mobs on to you.
As long as you are the first one to pull all the mobs in a group, then if the DPS don’t attack any of the adds, there’s no reason why the adds will switch away from you.
And the advice about Protection spec is correct, no point in worsening your damage output for small protection gains.
You also have to keep yourself alive, can do this by making sure the mobs facing you and they’re not behind you. Use shield block / similar abilities when you’re able to.
Just try it and you will get the hang of it. Probably not a lot of use to overthink it prior to playing.
I see, I’ll give it another shot at 30+ then for DPS tanking or when I start getting threat issues, it’s good to know there are options available when I hit that wall atleast
@op
What also helps for tab targeting. I’ve bound next/prev target to the mousewheel (and zoom to shift+mousewheel)
Combine with marking keybinds and you can mark a whole pack under a second once you become fluid with it
Not sure if it is an issue you’re running into but for me it’s been a lifechanger, also makes it easier to swap back and forth between previous and next target
Mark mobs, keybind skull (1st target), cross (2nd), moon (cc if you need) at least, things can get much easier if people will follow that
Always watch your healer mana, if they low/oom - it’s mana break
Keep Battle shout always on, it’s also your best AoE threat, yes it stacks
Revenge should be priority, when it pops - use it. For it to pop often use shield block, you will help your healer (especially with talent) and have a good threat
Bloodrage also generates threat and gives rage, try use it as much as you can
Tab and sunder mobs, usually you want around 3 sunders for safety
Don’t use taunt unless mob is going for your healer or something
Pull carefully (with ranged weapons) in possibly difficult situations
I don’t see almost any point in using thunderclap at all, you will need to change stance (if you’re in def), probably lose rage and it costs a lot with little actual threat, and forget heroic strike
You can tank in any spec, but I always prefer prot - Last Stand (oh sh*t button), cheaper sunders, imp. shield block (with sheld spec extra rage bonus), Conc. blow and imp. revenge - stuns, and stuns are mitigation and extra interrupts, ofc Shield Slam, and generally more armor, threat and surviability, but a lot of people don’t like playing prot outside of dungeons so it’s up to you
And remember, people often look at a tank as a leader, and that often cones only with experience, like being confident, reliable, not doing stupid pulls, wait for people’s mana, knowing where to go and what to do etc.
Tanking won’t be easy at first, there’s a lot of nuances depending on your group behavior and composition, so it takes a lot to learn really well
Go as a DPS first to memorise the routes. Also, make sure you use marks and explain them before the run. Broken sheep and saps are a common cause of wipes, so make sure you’re all on the same page before you engage anything.
^^^^^^^
That’s a complete manual “Tanking for dummies”
All who wants to tank in classic, read that post over and over until you can quote it in the middle of the night
Yeah, tank specc is mainly for survability, taking less dmg. As a raid tank, that is really needed as the bosses tend to hit hard and without a tank specc you could possibly be oneshotted by the raid boss if you’re unlucky. Rage is not a problem as you get hit hard enough anyway. While lvling, dungeon bosses are more forgiving and unless you go in 5 lvls below the boss, it shouldn’t be a problem for a healer to keep you up. Also for trash, more dmg taken= more rage= more dmg done= more threat= DPS can do more dmg without overaggroing. As long as the healer can keep you up without too much problems, taking more dmg in dungeon makes tanking easier. + lvling as a protection specc will be a royal pain in the a*s as you do very little dmg. I suggest go arms. When you got tactical mastery you can practice your stance dancing.
>pull with gun
>activate bloodrage (generates threat)
>battleshout (generates threat)
>shieldblock
>start putting 1 sunder armor on each mob in rotation, while throwing out revenge on the main target
>taunt if someone pulls
Skarmtank on youtube… Not a fan of streamers but vods on youtube are pretty usefull. And streamers aside,this guy knows how to tank… he even explains and shows druid tanking for raids, what most people considered impossible…
