Some morez helpz pleeze
- Thread starter WannabeKurt
- Start date
WoWWiki's article on Warrior tanks.
The best advice I can give you is to spec Protection, go with a 1h weapon and a shield, learn how to mess with stances properly, and make stacking Sunder Armor your first priority since it generates huge threat as you stack it. Have your group give you a few seconds' head start so that you can build aggro properly, as well, and if you have a paladin in the group have him give all caster dpsers Blessing of Salvation instead of Wisdom so that they can keep their threat at a manageable level.
And be prepared for huge repair bills as you progress.
The best advice I can give you is to spec Protection, go with a 1h weapon and a shield, learn how to mess with stances properly, and make stacking Sunder Armor your first priority since it generates huge threat as you stack it. Have your group give you a few seconds' head start so that you can build aggro properly, as well, and if you have a paladin in the group have him give all caster dpsers Blessing of Salvation instead of Wisdom so that they can keep their threat at a manageable level.
And be prepared for huge repair bills as you progress.
Basically, besides the extremely obvious (speccing prot and gearing up to take lots of hits), remember that warrior tanking is based off of using high aggro/low damage skills.
Things like using sunders (and, when available, revenge/shield block/shield bash) constantly are your friends. Dont use taunt to grab the initial aggro... Save it when someone pulls a mob away from you (ESPECIALLY when you're doing a multi-mob pull).
Your goal is to piss the mob(s) off more then everyone else. Thus, you need to be generating as much threat as possible. Revenge is your most rage-efficient move, meaning you should use it whenever its available. Shield block is vital to ensuring your own survival, and should also be spammed as much as possible (and it also gives you a pretty much assured revenge, as well).
DONT spam heroic strikes. Heroic strikes should only be used when you have so much excess rage that you don't have anything better to do with it. Spam Sunders, instead.
If you have a multi mob pull, first off, make sure to mark it. As the tank, its generally going to always be your job to mark the pulls, so get used to it now. Make use of CC (Hunter traps, Mage sheeps, Rogue saps, Lock seduction... Even the more specific ones, like locks banishing demons, druids sleeping beasts, Priests shackling the undead, are all KEY to any pull, and unless you know you can just own the pull anyway, make sure to use them) as much as possible.
Often, though, you dont have a group made up of you, a rogue/mage/hunter dps, with a priest to shackle. Or sometimes itll be inconvenient or impossible to CC everything. So you need to prioritize the order of attack, and make sure your dps is focus firing on one mob.
However, Healing spells cause global aggro across all the mobs. Thus, if you are not careful, your healer (and this is especially true with non-pally healers) will quickly draw away all your spare mobs.
So, to keep them with you, the best idea (this is assuming you are dealing with two mobs) is to first drop a few sunders/revenge/whatever on the first mob, while concussion blowing the second mob. After building up sufficient aggro on the first mob (or its near dead anyway), you should be splitting your time between the second mob, which should be sundered/revenged/whatevered while its stunned. If it still runs away is when you should use taunt.
If there are three mobs, you need to do the same thing, except that you'll probably be taunting the third mob, and have to spend more time splitting up your threat generation amongst the mobs.
Thunderclap is your friend. Dont forget about it, but dont expect it to generate that much aggro. It kinda sucks like that.
You need rage to do your shit. Use bloodrage and such to generate rage between pulls, and remember that you'll be gaining rage as the fight goes on, so dont worry about spending it... Though don't go crazy about it, either.
As long as your dps aren't idiots, unless they are a shaman or warlock they shouldn't be pulling aggro from you... And even then, at this level, they shouldn't be able to do more damage then you can safely handle. Make sure your hunters and rogues know to feign death and feint, and that your mages dont go crazy (and to fucking iceblock if they need to).
Healing aggro is your biggest threat stealer on multimob pulls, remember that. With a pally healer, it aint that big of a deal (because flash of light generates like no threat), and salv will help everyone out a lot, too. Priests and Shaman healers, though... Watch out. Shamans especially are aggro magnets, and dont be upset with yourself if your shaman healer ends up pulling aggro a lot.
That kind of thing will happen all the way through to 25 man raids. Sucks to be a resto shaman, but they get used to it ; ).
Your druid healer can do things to boost your aggro (pretty sure lifebloom ticks count as healing aggro done by the TARGET, not the caster), and priests should know to fade.
But, for yourself... Just make sure to keep track of all the mobs, and to sunder, sunder, sunder.
This is sorta what your build should look like at level 34
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LZZbEzoIMd
Things like using sunders (and, when available, revenge/shield block/shield bash) constantly are your friends. Dont use taunt to grab the initial aggro... Save it when someone pulls a mob away from you (ESPECIALLY when you're doing a multi-mob pull).
Your goal is to piss the mob(s) off more then everyone else. Thus, you need to be generating as much threat as possible. Revenge is your most rage-efficient move, meaning you should use it whenever its available. Shield block is vital to ensuring your own survival, and should also be spammed as much as possible (and it also gives you a pretty much assured revenge, as well).
DONT spam heroic strikes. Heroic strikes should only be used when you have so much excess rage that you don't have anything better to do with it. Spam Sunders, instead.
If you have a multi mob pull, first off, make sure to mark it. As the tank, its generally going to always be your job to mark the pulls, so get used to it now. Make use of CC (Hunter traps, Mage sheeps, Rogue saps, Lock seduction... Even the more specific ones, like locks banishing demons, druids sleeping beasts, Priests shackling the undead, are all KEY to any pull, and unless you know you can just own the pull anyway, make sure to use them) as much as possible.
Often, though, you dont have a group made up of you, a rogue/mage/hunter dps, with a priest to shackle. Or sometimes itll be inconvenient or impossible to CC everything. So you need to prioritize the order of attack, and make sure your dps is focus firing on one mob.
However, Healing spells cause global aggro across all the mobs. Thus, if you are not careful, your healer (and this is especially true with non-pally healers) will quickly draw away all your spare mobs.
So, to keep them with you, the best idea (this is assuming you are dealing with two mobs) is to first drop a few sunders/revenge/whatever on the first mob, while concussion blowing the second mob. After building up sufficient aggro on the first mob (or its near dead anyway), you should be splitting your time between the second mob, which should be sundered/revenged/whatevered while its stunned. If it still runs away is when you should use taunt.
If there are three mobs, you need to do the same thing, except that you'll probably be taunting the third mob, and have to spend more time splitting up your threat generation amongst the mobs.
Thunderclap is your friend. Dont forget about it, but dont expect it to generate that much aggro. It kinda sucks like that.
You need rage to do your shit. Use bloodrage and such to generate rage between pulls, and remember that you'll be gaining rage as the fight goes on, so dont worry about spending it... Though don't go crazy about it, either.
As long as your dps aren't idiots, unless they are a shaman or warlock they shouldn't be pulling aggro from you... And even then, at this level, they shouldn't be able to do more damage then you can safely handle. Make sure your hunters and rogues know to feign death and feint, and that your mages dont go crazy (and to fucking iceblock if they need to).
Healing aggro is your biggest threat stealer on multimob pulls, remember that. With a pally healer, it aint that big of a deal (because flash of light generates like no threat), and salv will help everyone out a lot, too. Priests and Shaman healers, though... Watch out. Shamans especially are aggro magnets, and dont be upset with yourself if your shaman healer ends up pulling aggro a lot.
That kind of thing will happen all the way through to 25 man raids. Sucks to be a resto shaman, but they get used to it ; ).
Your druid healer can do things to boost your aggro (pretty sure lifebloom ticks count as healing aggro done by the TARGET, not the caster), and priests should know to fade.
But, for yourself... Just make sure to keep track of all the mobs, and to sunder, sunder, sunder.
This is sorta what your build should look like at level 34
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LZZbEzoIMd
just to add on, if you're tanking multiple mobs, use TClap every time it's up. It generates about the same amount of aggro as Consecrate upto 4 mobs, so it's quite useful.
Also, you don't need to be prot to tank instances at all, you just need some decent tanking gear. You probably only need to be prot spec to tank heroic instances and raids, other than that arms and fury can tank just fine, as long as you're not in a retarded pug.
Also, you don't need to be prot to tank instances at all, you just need some decent tanking gear. You probably only need to be prot spec to tank heroic instances and raids, other than that arms and fury can tank just fine, as long as you're not in a retarded pug.