So I'm fairly new to WoW and have my War leveled up to 48 so far. I'm really interested in tanking and have looked around everywhere but haven't found a good guide to War tanking. Most of the stuff I've found applies to higher level things like 10-man and 25-man runs. With the new LFG system I want to be able to use that in between solo questing.
I understand what I should be focusing on for gear and talents. The issue that I'm having is the actual tanking/fights. What abilities should I be focusing on? How do I keep aggro for multiple mobs? Should I be the one pulling? Is there a priority rotation that I should be focusing on? Any recommendations on addons and why?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Tanking adviceFollow
Uhm... um... the following was "borrowed" from www.elitistjerks.com...
Protection
Q: What spec should I use?
A: A variation on 15/3/53. ( http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LAM00fZhZVItrx0didczsGo:drTomM )
Q: I use this spec and these glyphs-
A: This isn't DPS, there is no be all and end all spec or set of glyphs. Read the Protection thread (*edit in: very confusing thread for me*) and make decisions based on your situation.
Q: What's my maximum threat rotation?
A: It isn't a rotation, but a very simple priority system. Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate, and use Heroic Strike as often as possible.
Q: Does Glyph of Devastate change this?
A: Using Glyph of Devastate will increase its threat enough that it will be better threat than Revenge at most gear levels, and particularly with a high iLvl weapon. Revenge will still be more rage efficient.
Q: What about AoE packs?
A: Thunderclap and Shockwave become your top priorities. Use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike. Shield Block will greatly reduce your incoming damage, and boost damage from the Damage Shield talent.
Q: What kind of weapon do I want?
A: A fast 1H tanking weapon.
Q: But slower weapons do more damage with Devastate!
A: Slow weapons also reduce how often you can Heroic Strike and Cleave. Stick to fast weapons unless you have bad luck with drops.
Q: What are my stat priorities?
A: 540 defense (689 Defense Rating). Stamina and Armor.
Q: What about avoidance?
A: If you need avoidance, Dodge is better than Parry.
Q: What about Block?
A: It's not bad, but they're adding diminishing returns soon. Don't pass up gear with Block, but don't specifically gear for it either.
Q: My threat sucks, what should I do?
A: Expertise is your best single target threat stat before you hit 26 expertise, it gets more confusing after that. Strength is the best all around threat stat and for AoE. Look for tanking gear with these stats.
Q: But I'll lose Stamina/Dodge/Gearscore if I do that!
A: Welcome to the world of tanking trade-offs.
Q: I keep dying. What I am doing wrong?
A: You may be undergeared, using a wrong strategy, standing in the fire, failing to use/time your survival cooldowns or have too few/bad healers. Make sure it isn't one of the first four.
Q: Who should get my Vigilance?
A: Whichever DPS does the most threat. This is usually your top DPS, but not always.
Q: Why are Indestructible Potions so important?
A: Because you can spend almost 4 minutes of any fight with an additional 3500 armor. You can chug one before entering combat and still be able use another during the fight. The damage you mitigate through one of these far outweighs what a Runic Health Potion heals.
Original thread contains info about Arms and Fury specs too. It can be found here: http://elitistjerks.com/f81/t88685-3_3_warrior_faq_read_first_post_later/
Although this is based on being L.80 it should show what to look forward to and hopefully nudge you in the right direction. I followed the talent spec by putting in all of the Protection points first, then the three in fury... then started in on the Arms tree (I am only a L.76 Warrior, myself)
Hope something helps you out. I normally don't like sending people to EJ.com because they use a lot of non-casual player talk to discuss things and when you have 49 other alts (kidding, of course) looking at what looks like a real world engineer's class mechanic handbook gets boring fast. Even moreso if you just don't 'get' it, and you just want an easy guide to read.
Edit in: I would also be interested in any tanking (or Warrior, in general) addons... and a brief description on why you like them and what they do...
Edited, Jan 25th 2010 1:36am by PentUpAnger
Protection
Q: What spec should I use?
A: A variation on 15/3/53. ( http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LAM00fZhZVItrx0didczsGo:drTomM )
Q: I use this spec and these glyphs-
A: This isn't DPS, there is no be all and end all spec or set of glyphs. Read the Protection thread (*edit in: very confusing thread for me*) and make decisions based on your situation.
Q: What's my maximum threat rotation?
A: It isn't a rotation, but a very simple priority system. Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate, and use Heroic Strike as often as possible.
Q: Does Glyph of Devastate change this?
A: Using Glyph of Devastate will increase its threat enough that it will be better threat than Revenge at most gear levels, and particularly with a high iLvl weapon. Revenge will still be more rage efficient.
Q: What about AoE packs?
A: Thunderclap and Shockwave become your top priorities. Use Cleave instead of Heroic Strike. Shield Block will greatly reduce your incoming damage, and boost damage from the Damage Shield talent.
Q: What kind of weapon do I want?
A: A fast 1H tanking weapon.
Q: But slower weapons do more damage with Devastate!
A: Slow weapons also reduce how often you can Heroic Strike and Cleave. Stick to fast weapons unless you have bad luck with drops.
Q: What are my stat priorities?
A: 540 defense (689 Defense Rating). Stamina and Armor.
Q: What about avoidance?
A: If you need avoidance, Dodge is better than Parry.
Q: What about Block?
A: It's not bad, but they're adding diminishing returns soon. Don't pass up gear with Block, but don't specifically gear for it either.
Q: My threat sucks, what should I do?
A: Expertise is your best single target threat stat before you hit 26 expertise, it gets more confusing after that. Strength is the best all around threat stat and for AoE. Look for tanking gear with these stats.
Q: But I'll lose Stamina/Dodge/Gearscore if I do that!
A: Welcome to the world of tanking trade-offs.
Q: I keep dying. What I am doing wrong?
A: You may be undergeared, using a wrong strategy, standing in the fire, failing to use/time your survival cooldowns or have too few/bad healers. Make sure it isn't one of the first four.
Q: Who should get my Vigilance?
A: Whichever DPS does the most threat. This is usually your top DPS, but not always.
Q: Why are Indestructible Potions so important?
A: Because you can spend almost 4 minutes of any fight with an additional 3500 armor. You can chug one before entering combat and still be able use another during the fight. The damage you mitigate through one of these far outweighs what a Runic Health Potion heals.
Original thread contains info about Arms and Fury specs too. It can be found here: http://elitistjerks.com/f81/t88685-3_3_warrior_faq_read_first_post_later/
Although this is based on being L.80 it should show what to look forward to and hopefully nudge you in the right direction. I followed the talent spec by putting in all of the Protection points first, then the three in fury... then started in on the Arms tree (I am only a L.76 Warrior, myself)
Hope something helps you out. I normally don't like sending people to EJ.com because they use a lot of non-casual player talk to discuss things and when you have 49 other alts (kidding, of course) looking at what looks like a real world engineer's class mechanic handbook gets boring fast. Even moreso if you just don't 'get' it, and you just want an easy guide to read.
Edit in: I would also be interested in any tanking (or Warrior, in general) addons... and a brief description on why you like them and what they do...
Edited, Jan 25th 2010 1:36am by PentUpAnger
Good advice in the last post. At your level if you've got a limited toolkit - you don't even have Devastate, Shockwave, or Sword & Board yet. If you're having trouble keeping aggro on groups of mobs, you might consider a Glyph of Sunder Armor. 48-60 you're basically going to be getting new Prot toys the whole time, so understand that it will DEFINITELY get easier over time.
The biggest one is a good, clean UI. When you're tanking you do NOT want a bunch of crap cluttering up your screen. Ideally you want a UI that you can look at "at a glance" and tell what's happening, but that doesn't obscure your view of the environment or your ability to target new enemies. Focus frames and target of target are great panels to have up as long as they're not in the way.
Bigwigs or DBM are both pretty key for any raiding of course.
Omen is absolutely essential as a tank.
Useful but not essential: Power Auras is nice for monitoring Sword and Board procs. Dotimer or something like it is nice to keep track of your CDs and when they're up if you have trouble keeping track of it manually. Visual Heal (I think this is built into Pitbull at this point) is also nice to have IMO. I personally like Bartender a lot better than Blizzard's action bars.
I personally like Recount, especially to troubleshoot deaths or wipes, but you have to be careful about having it auto-sync - can do some nasty things to performance and cause DCs at the worst possible time.
pentupanger wrote:
I would also be interested in any tanking (or Warrior, in general) addons... and a brief description on why you like them and what they do...
The biggest one is a good, clean UI. When you're tanking you do NOT want a bunch of crap cluttering up your screen. Ideally you want a UI that you can look at "at a glance" and tell what's happening, but that doesn't obscure your view of the environment or your ability to target new enemies. Focus frames and target of target are great panels to have up as long as they're not in the way.
Bigwigs or DBM are both pretty key for any raiding of course.
Omen is absolutely essential as a tank.
Useful but not essential: Power Auras is nice for monitoring Sword and Board procs. Dotimer or something like it is nice to keep track of your CDs and when they're up if you have trouble keeping track of it manually. Visual Heal (I think this is built into Pitbull at this point) is also nice to have IMO. I personally like Bartender a lot better than Blizzard's action bars.
I personally like Recount, especially to troubleshoot deaths or wipes, but you have to be careful about having it auto-sync - can do some nasty things to performance and cause DCs at the worst possible time.
I'd like to add to an addon discussion.
Omnicc. is a great addon for me. It puts numerical countdown #'s on your hotbar buttons for cooldowns. Instead of a dial that turns, it gives you a # to look at. Dottimer does this as well, but makes a new window that makes a bit of clutter sometimes.
RatingBuster. is handy for looking at gear upgrades. Gives a readout of the +/-'s of gear compared to what you are wearing and gives a % conversion for ratings.
Tankpoints. While isn't something you should entirely trust for better gear, it definitely helps with it's other function the in game tanking calculator.
Warrior Vigilance Tracker. Makes a small new window that tells you who has your vigilance, and how long it is until the buff wears off or if it was dispelled (from death, etc...). Easy one button use to reapply.
Aloft. A nameplate replacement. I like it better to be able to see nameplates the way this addon does it. It's nice to be able to differentiate mobs with more clarity, at least for myself.
Atlasloot Enhanced. Very useful to be able to see items from vendors and boss mobs, without being around. Easy use to farm specific bosses, etc...
While I use an addon called Nui which is a huge UI change to the interface. You could try it, it has a lot of these features mentioned above built into it.
Omnicc. is a great addon for me. It puts numerical countdown #'s on your hotbar buttons for cooldowns. Instead of a dial that turns, it gives you a # to look at. Dottimer does this as well, but makes a new window that makes a bit of clutter sometimes.
RatingBuster. is handy for looking at gear upgrades. Gives a readout of the +/-'s of gear compared to what you are wearing and gives a % conversion for ratings.
Tankpoints. While isn't something you should entirely trust for better gear, it definitely helps with it's other function the in game tanking calculator.
Warrior Vigilance Tracker. Makes a small new window that tells you who has your vigilance, and how long it is until the buff wears off or if it was dispelled (from death, etc...). Easy one button use to reapply.
Aloft. A nameplate replacement. I like it better to be able to see nameplates the way this addon does it. It's nice to be able to differentiate mobs with more clarity, at least for myself.
Atlasloot Enhanced. Very useful to be able to see items from vendors and boss mobs, without being around. Easy use to farm specific bosses, etc...
While I use an addon called Nui which is a huge UI change to the interface. You could try it, it has a lot of these features mentioned above built into it.
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