Tanking Basics

The Call to Arms changes to the Looking for Dungeon tool have encouraged many to give tanking a try.  Since many of these new tanks have had little experience in that role,  I think a post about the basics of tanking is needed.  In this post, I’ll go through the different parts of tanking:

• The tactical review of the fight
• The pull
• Generating threat
• Tools to help

Tactical review

The first thing that a tank needs to do for each encounter is assess the opposing group in terms of their composition. Are the mobs casters, melee or ranged?

The easiest by far to tank are melee creatures.  Just say hi to them (shooting/throwing something at them) and they’ll come towards you.  Charge one of them and the others will mass around you.  Like I said, very simple.  The second easiest is a caster.  Casters will try to fight you where they stand but this is where investing 2 points in the talent Gag Order is worth it.  Simply throw your weapon at them (Heroic throw) or go to them, pummel one of their cast and see them trying to melee you for the next few seconds.  The real threat is archers.  These cannot be interrupted, silenced, or anything.  You have two recourse then: Crowd Control or Line of Sight.

The next thing to see is the location of those mobs.  What are the obstacles that you could use to break line of sight? Are there patrols that come in the vicinity?

To tank is to do this analysis for every pull.  You need to quickly assess an encounter and put together a tactic for it.  Even a lowly trash encounter can easily overwhelm a group if the casters are left to target the healer, or worse, if a patrol joins the fray.

The Pull

Now this to me is the real fun part of tanking. As a warrior, you have the following tools to start a fight:

• Heroic Throw – Generates a good amount of threat and if talented, silences casters and forces them to come towards you.
• Shooting/Throwing – Generates a tiny amount of threat, mainly used to just get the mob’s attention. Very useful before having the talent Warbringer if you don’t fancy Stance dancing.
• Taunt – Ok, never ever use taunt to start a fight. The most uncertain time in a fight is right after the pull when your aggro is tenuous. This is when you might need your taunt to do what it’s meant for, taunt back from an overzealous dps.
• Charge/Heroic Leap – This is the trademark pull for the warrior.  Puts you in melee range right away so you can start building up aggro.
• Facepulling – Just move close enough, it will make them attack you. After the taunt pull, this is the worst way to pull as a warrior as you start the fight with almost no rage to work with.

See? Even the casters run during a Line of Sight pull. Voss is well hidden in the corner there after using Heroic Throw to pull. Technically, I should be turned towards them and not facing the corner...

Pulling by throwing your weapon, shooting, etc.

The simplest version of this pull is simply target a mob and shoot at it.  The melee mobs will come to you while the others start attacking from range which can create a mess very quickly. It works only with a group that’s all melee or with one caster if you use heroic throw and have the talent gag order to silence him and force him to run towards you.

Line of Sight pull

This is one of the best technique out there.  You shoot/throw something at a mob and then break line of sight by using the top of the stairs or a wall. The enemies will need to go up the stairs/go around that wall to get to you.  It groups them all up in one neat pile for you to AoE.  It works on all types of enemies, be they archers, casters or melee.  The one thing that makes this a success is for you to inform your group of your intentions so that there is no healing (unless the healer is behind the tank) and no dps until the enemies are where you need them to be.  Communication is always important when tanking, but in the case of the Line of Sight pull, it’s not even an option.

Note: Lara at Root and Branch has a great series of primers (Primer and Intermediate) about threat which include diagrams for Line of Sight pulls and a plethora of other useful information.  I strongly encourage you to go and give it a read!

Pulling with a charge

There are a few ways of doing this:

The classic charge – Pick a target, click charge.

The charge and turn charge. – This one is a bit more complicated. You basically jump up before the end of your charge and while in the air, you mouse turn 180 degrees.  You should now be behind your target, facing it. Your target will turn to face you and thus have its back to the melee dps running to join the fight.

Combining the styles

What truly will make you a pulling master is to combine the pulls mentioned above.  There’s the:

Throw a weapon/run away/charge

This technique uses a simple thrown weapon to grab the enemies’ attention. Then turn and run away, forcing even the caster and archers to run after you as you move out of their range.  Finally, turn back and charge them when they’re where you want them to be.

This works especially well when you cannot line of sight the enemies but do not want to fight them where they stand because of possible patrols.

Line of sight/charge

This one is very simple.  You line of sight the enemies but strafe away from the corner.  When the enemies turn the corner, charge in.  You have them where you wanted them and you got the rage bonus from the charge.  Simply awesome!

And here they are, all grouped up in range of all of your attacks. They'll stick to you until the end now.

Generating Threat

This one is pretty simple, most of what you do will generate threat, even using battle shout. How to generate the maximum amount of threat is fairly linear.

For a single target pull, Shield Slam.  Early and often. Revenge on cooldown, devastate to push your three sunders.  After that, I’d say it depends on your group.  I most often run with groups with incredible dps and so I need to keep generating threat as much as possible.  When you have a small cushion, you should use demoralizing shout and Thunderclap and keep those debuffs up.

For a multiple target pull, I most often thunderclap while still running, position the mobs quickly and then hit shockwave to lock them in place. I then apply rend and thunderclap again and spam cleave when the rage is available.  You should of course distribute shield slams, devastates and revenge while switching target to solidify your aggro, but cleave and thunderclap (especially if you are talented into blood and thunder) should be able to keep the group on you.

Tools to help with tanking

Vigilance – While technically it’s not a tool but one of your abilities, it’s very important to put it on the dps that seems to have more threat than the others.  It’s a free taunt and some vengeance when he gets hit, always useful.

Tidy Plates – It replaces the nameplates with its own custom version. It’s incredibly useful as you can configure it to show you which enemies is casting, about to run to a dps or is already hacking away at one of the other melee.  I would say that most raid tanks are now using this or something similar to it.

The green circle shows an enemy on which I have the primary aggro. The Yellow circle shows one where Vidyala had the most threat. It's an easy visual way to see if you have complete control of the group or if any enemies are slipping.

Omen or Skada – You need to know how much cushion you have on the next person on the threat scale.

A Heads-up Display – This one is optional but I personally love to have information about my enemy right in my field of view.  I know many tanks use IceHud but others prefer a cleaner interface.  The main thing to remember is you need to customize your interface to how you like to play and what challenges you are currently tackling.  You need to remember though that the tank needs to be able to react very quickly to additional mobs coming in battle, a patrol, etc.  And so whatever you do with your display, make sure that it’s clean enough for you to have an excellent view of the battle.

Conclusion

The only real way to get better at this is to practice a lot. Get some guildies to go with you or even go and solo lower level instances and practice.  Try out the line of sights, the pull and charge.

One thing I did not talk about today is the importance of crowd control.  I’ll keep that part for another post but try to get to know the different types of crowd control present in your group and use them.

Hope this little post can help out.  Have fun and good luck!

Professions for Tanks

Choosing a profession is often a really tough decision.  There are many factors to take into account.

What is your level?

A character that’s levelling will be travelling through most of the game’s world which will allow him to level a gathering profession easily, while questing.  Herbalism, Skinning and Mining are very good professions to gradually level with your character.  Enchanting is also fairly easy especially if you happen to use LFD a fair amount.  The ability to disenchant your quest rewards is probably also the best way to keep your bags clean.

Are you end game raiding?  Are you into making money?  Are you into roleplaying and is your profession part of your character’s story?

For example, I remember a tank who absolutely loved tailoring.  A rare choice to be sure, but he liked it.  Would I advise this for someone interested in endgame raiding?  Probably not.

There are many blogs out there who can teach you how to make money using your professions.  My focus will be on the end game raiding in Cataclysm.

Alchemy

• Mixology: Double duration on Flasks and Elixirs and enhanced effects

Blacksmithing

• 2 extra sockets which can be for gems of any colour with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves.

Enchanting

• Enchant rings with two different options:
  • Enchant Ring – Greater Stamina: Stamina +60 (Total of +120 stamina)
  • Enchant Ring – Strength: Strength +40 (Total of +80 Strength)

Engineering

• Rhidach at Righteous Defense has a great Engineering Guide for Tanks.  Since I would not do it justice, I’ll simply link it.
• The jist of it is Engineering seems like it’s going to be even more fun than in Wrath.  The main tanking items that have no risk of blowing up in your face are the rocket boots which now become a nitro belt, a new pair of great looking tanking goggles and an enchantment for gloves that gives you 1200 armour for 12 seconds every minute.

Herbalism

• Lifeblood gives you a self heal (One minor wound) and 240 haste for 20 seconds every 2 minutes.

Inscription

• Inscription of the Earth Prince: Stamina +195 dodge +25
• The normal reputation shoulder enchant is Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz.  It’s a net gain of 120 stamina and one less reputation grind.

Jewelcrafting

• As before, you gain the ability to have 3 special gems.
• As a tank, your choices are:
  • Solid Chimera’s Eye: +101 Stamina (Normal gem is +60 Stamina, a net gain of +41 Stamina Or a total of 123 Stamina for 3 gems)
  • Bold Chimera’s Eye: +67 Strength (Normal gem is +40 Strength, a net gain of +27 Strength)
  • Precise Chimera’s Eye: +67 Expertise (Normal gem is +40 Expertise, a net gain of +27 Expertise)
  • Subtle Chimera’s Eye: +67 Dodge (Normal gem is +40 Dodge, a net gain of +27 Dodge)
• You can use any combination you desire with a maximum of three gems at a time.

Leatherworking

• Bracers: Draconic Embossment – Stamina +195 Stamina
• The normal Stamina enchantment for bracers will remain our current +40 Stamina so this is a whopping net gain of +155 stamina.

Mining

• Mining is simple. Toughness: + 120 Stamina.  ’Nuff said.

Skinning

• Skinning offers Master of Anatomy, a Critical Rating +80.  Not really a tanking profession.

Tailoring

• Embroidery on your cloak will give you Swordguard Embroidery a proc for +1000 AP.  Again, this is not the best for most tanks.

Summary

As you can see above, there is no one right answer (Although there are some that do seem wrong).  Vosskah is a Blacksmith and a Jewelcrafter at the moment and seeing the above table, he will keep those two professions going into Cataclysm.  The reason why I prefer those two professions above the others are that they give the player a wide variety of options to play with.  If you want to have the highest stamina, Leatherworking is the best.  If you hate grinding a reputation, then Inscription is very good.  If this is your only character at maximum level, then Mining is a great choice.  But Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing allow you to have extra hit, stamina, some strength, etc.  It all depends on what you need at the moment.

I will give an honourable mention to Engineering simply for the fun factor.  It is a very strong tanking profession, but it’s also a great way to have fun while tanking.  I always say that “Tanking is Serious Business” but there is a part of me that envies two of the tanks in our team when they fire up those rocket boots and leave me in their dust.  I do have my trusty combo charge/intercept/intervene though.

Moving Right Along

This is part two in a series of guest/jointly written posts from Vidyala, formerly of Pugging Pally and now writing at Manalicious. All italics in the post are Vosskah’s contribution. If you missed part one you can read it here: Looking to be a great warrior?

I said I’d be warrior tanking, right? I didn’t necessarily say I’d be warrior pugging. I have done some pugging. The last few levels have been really nice, though, because I had the opportunity to run with friends for most of it. I’ve done instances with Rades, Redbeard, Lara, Anea, and Voss himself. (He made a lowbie warrior, don’t ask). Below are the talents and glyphs I have cleverly chosen Voss told me to take. I told him he’d better write about them himself because I don’t want to spread rampant misinformation.

Glyphs and Talents

Glyph of Shield Slam This is your primary single target threat weapon.  An additional 10% damage is a very welcome addition.

Glyph of Thunderclap The old instances are all made with packs of trash.  This is your best AoE aggro tool until you get shockwave at level 69.  More range with your thunderclap means you have a better chance of grabbing that mob that could be heading towards your healer.

Glyph of Battle The minor glyphs are really not that wonderful.  Battle Shout is the first shout you have, might as well keep it up longer so you don’t have to think about it so much.  In the new reality of 4.0 though, Battle Shout gives you rage instead of costing you rage.  This means you should use it a lot more often.  It’s not just a question of keeping the buff up.  It’s giving you the resources you need to keep everyone’s attention on you.

I have maxed out Shield Specialization as well as Hold The Line.

This is again, as explained in previous posts, a question of generating as much threat as possible.  In all of the instances Vid ran with her warrior, she was never even remotely in danger of dying.  The biggest issues she ran into were mostly threat related when facing DPS that were 6 levels higher than her.  I was wrong in my second post.  Shield Specialization is the most important in the second tier and I would follow with Hold the Line.  I would keep Gag Order for later.

Levels 20-27

My tanking odyssey continues. I had an unexpected boon in the form of Wailing Caverns – you can’t queue for Wailing Caverns until you “discover” it. Not exactly in a rush to discover this twisted turd of an instance, I decline to do so, and thus never have to tank it! (I’m sorry, I really don’t like Wailing Caverns). Here are the instances I have tanked.

Shadowfang Keep

This instance is a bit complicated to navigate but it’s not too bad. It has many wandering patrols. Here I had my first encounter with a really annoying person…actually not a DPS, the healer – a paladin – wielding a two-handed battle axe and jumping in my face the entire time.

The JUMPING. He never stopped jumping. This story has a happy ending, though. As we approached the outdoor battlements that lead from one building to another, we attacked a group precariously close to the edge. The healer bounced up, up…and off. I wish it had killed him, but I still laughed really hard anyhow. Poetic justice for the insatiable jumper!

Contrary to what the previous entry would have you believe, I did not make a skeleton warrior. Three guesses what I *did* make.

Blackfathom Deep

This instance wasn’t bad once I remembered the correct way to go; tanking this is fairly straightforward. The only part that’s potentially hairy is once you leave the naga/satyr section of the instance and head into the “Twilight Cultist” section. Some of these are runners and they are fairly tightly packed. I tried to use the corners to my advantage – particularly once you head up the steps and are facing the groups on the walkway with the big columns. You can line of sight these guys around the columns, and I recommend you do so! It makes life easier for your healers. Anea actually complimented my LoS pull here and I had to admit, “Voss told me to do it.”

You can do a similar thing once you reach the building where Twilight Lord Kelris resides. LoS these various casters out into the little corridor with your group (if they are patient enough to wait). Your ranged weapon is your friend, and maintaining control over these groups will ensure no ridiculous hilarity. Similarly with the candles – you will likely run into people who insist they should be lit at all at once! …Don’t let people do this. You can use a nice shield slam on one group of mobs as they enter, and then strafe over to the other pack to Thunderclap them. You should have the rage to do that. The rest of the instance is cake! I ran it a few times, with pugs, friends, a mixture, and with only friends.

One of the things I enjoy the most while tanking is when I can execute the perfect pull.  A tank needs to be aware how the fight will unfold before the pull.  The tank needs to know who are the ranged enemies and what trick should be used to group them with the rest of their friends.  Ciderhelm put together a very good video explaining this:  TankSpot’s Tanking Reference: Awareness & Camera Control.  I highly recommend it.  Ciderhelm also used to have a video about pulling techniques for warriors but I have not been able to locate it in a while.

Stormwind Stockades

This instance has the potential be annoying/frustrating. On the one hand, it’s very straightforward. Simple rooms, interminable rooms full of things. On the other hand, most of these will run if they can, and annoying half-walls at the back of each room can present LoS issues. I tended to run into each room, shield slam one of the first prisoners and then move back a bit to Thunderclap the rest. (You see, I absorbed Voss’ insistence about Shield Slam). You can hit them through the wall sometimes, you can also try to run in to where they are but then you might be cutting yourself off from your healer. Just play it smart.

More than anything the most helpful thing I found in Stocks is to really stay ahead of your group. Just always keep them on their toes, move on quickly to the next pack so they never get a chance to pause and think, “Say, I should attack this before the tank does…”

Gnomeregan

Ah, my old nemesis, we meet again. I honestly think I would not have been able to complete this instance without the Lara’s assistance. I told her before we even queued that I am apt to get lost and that Gnomeregan is the worst for me. She assured me that she knew her way through the instance and could help me lead the way – and she did; like a gentle dwarven sign post she would run ahead and pause at our intended location, and mark creatures that we needed. A few times she asked me quizzically, “?” or, “Are you going that way for a particular reason?”

Nope, no particular reason, except that I don’t know where I am going. I really tried to remember the way that we were going in case I have to go back without her. Except I hope that I don’t have to go back without her. Our first run included some mild loot drama – a feral druid rolled Need on a pair of cloth boots. The hapless druid was harangued by myself, the priest healer, and Lara for a good five minutes. “I can heal too,” he said.

“But that’s not what you’re doing now, is it?” Eventually this degenerated into the priest ranting about people needing on gear, at which point she/he became belligerent and opted to make my life difficult by running ahead to aggro mobs and act as if she were the tank. I told her pointedly, “I’m sorry if I’m not going fast enough for you, but you aren’t making this any easier.”

I hate when DPS pull for me. I hate it so much. It throws off my groove. It steals rage from me. It is unspeakably annoying. If you are a DPS, don’t do this. If you are a healer, don’t heal DPS who do this, and if you are a tank – I’m sorry.

Razorfen Kraul

This is another instance I tend to get lost in. Fortunately for me, I had Lara by my side again, and for the brief moment she had to go AFK I just headed towards the nearest pigs and killed them. I feel I’m sort of getting the hang of some of this tanking stuff. It’s like a small light bulb going on. (Very small). I know that I’m learning when I say, “Hmm, that one’s a caster, isn’t it?” and Voss looks over and says, “Yup!” and I know that means I have to go to it. The toughest thing for me is moving as a melee DPS or tank would. I was trying to turn the mobs for the melee DPS sometimes but I was inconsistent about it and this is something Voss pointed out to me – a finer point, if you will. I am coming at this whole venture with an attitude of wanting to learn and knowing that I am far from perfect so I will gladly ask for criticism about my performance or guidance where it’s needed! RFK went off without a hitch, the people were nice and friendly. Most instances have been incredibly smooth, truthfully. The biggest pitfall I am having is, well, actually there are a few things.

1) Absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever. I downloaded the Atlas addon, but the fact is that even the time it takes to open up and look at where bosses are – most groups are not going to wait. The only way I’m able to keep them on their toes is through rush rush rushing. If I don’t go – they start going without me. So I don’t know if I’m going to have to start studying up or what – I look forward to the Scarlet Monastery instances since I know those pretty well.

2) Rage generation: I am having times where I have so much rage I don’t know what to do with it, and other times when I am staaaaarved. That’s what I asked Voss to write about.

3) Keeping an eye on my rage: I don’t usually use a HUD on any of my characters because I haven’t found it absolutely necessary. Now I don’t always know how much rage I need.

4) Movement. I’m trying really hard to not put my back to things and to move smoothly but it’s just not something I often have to think about as a healer/ranged caster.

My next level (level 29!) should allow me to get the awesome talent Warbringer, so I am greatly looking forward to that.

I think that item 2 is wrong.  It’s not as much a problem of rage generation but of rage management.  Yes, a HUD will help you get attuned to how it flows depending on your actions.  In this case, it’s a problem that most new Protection Warriors face:  Starting a pull with absolutely no rage to work with.

There are many things that can be done to alleviate this.  Before level 29, you can change to battle stance, charge and then change back.  To be honest, it’s a pain in the butt and it becomes much smoother as soon as you get Warbringer at level 29.  So, yes, you can charge.  You can use Battle or Commanding Shout to generate some rage.  These are all very good way to generate rage.  There is another way to go though: Do not spend all of your rage to finish a trash pack.

The tank’s job is not to kill the enemies as much as it is to keep control of the situation.  You do not have to press a button all the time.  At the end of a pack, when you have plenty of aggro on mobs, you can let your last couple of hits be white hits, giving you rage, while your dps finishes them.  Of course, keep an eye on your threat so that they don’t pull from you.  But if you’re aware that the fight is almost over and have already planned your next pull, you can start moving as soon as the mob is down to your next target, thereby starting the fight with enough rage to cement the enemies on you and moving fast enough to keep your group on their toes.  A group that feels that the tank is moving at a fair pace has much less chance to become creative and pull for you.

As for number 4, to be honest, I learned movement in PvP.  I am awful at it, but it forced me to learn to move and adapt very quickly.  You learn to run, jump/turn/run, charge/intercept/intervene.  It’s a wonderful and merciless school.

Looking to be a great warrior?

“Looking to be a great warrior? War does not make one great.” -Exodar Peacekeeper

This is part one of a series of guest posts from Vidyala, formerly of Pugging Pally and now writing at Manalicious.

People ask me all the time about my Pugging Pally. Am I still pugging? Do I intend to pug from 80-85? Why don’t I write about pugging? (In short: Bring back THE PAIN, we enjoyed laughing at you!)

Recently, I’ve been thinking. I have plenty of DPS characters. I have plenty of tank-capable classes. But I don’t really have beyond a rudimentary understanding of how to tank. I had a brief flirtation with a little Tauren druid tank, but it ended up petering out. Vid herself did a bit of tanking along the way – very little. I feel as if tanking is something you really have to commit to, dive into it, and be really determined how to learn. I’ve always avoided doing it, by and large – because it freaks me out. When I was first trying a bit of druid tanking, I sat there for five minutes psyching myself up before I clicked “find a group.”

Tanking is the most responsible role in the game. Yes, healers also have a lot of responsibility, but it’s different. It’s not nearly as mobile, reactive, or stressful. This could just be because I am more comfortable healing. It probably is! Regardless, I’ve thought off and on about trying a lowbie tank.

So here we are. The same way people ask me about pugging, they ask Voss about warriors, lowbie warriors, specs, and strategies. Voss likes warriors, but he doesn’t have very much time for alts. An ingenuous idea was born! Perhaps it will fizzle before “the end.” In this case I am very much about the journey. I don’t care if this character makes it to 85 and it takes a year or more. The purpose of this character is for me to conquer my aversion to tanking, dive into LFD and see what happens. It may also prove to be another interesting experiment in social interaction and leadership. Don’t forget, I’m someone who could get lost in a phone booth. It was part of what kept me from tanking before!

A fringe benefit to this (from my perspective, perhaps a greater one for you) is that I am going to seek Voss’ advice about learning how to warrior as I proceed. This will include information about specs, glyphs, gearing, and (judging from the way he was looking over my shoulder this afternoon) also play. We’re going to be “co-writing” these entries, in that I will exclaim over things and he will make sure that no wrong information is included. Because I never claimed to be a warrior, I’m a mage in disguise.

This is what I looked like after LFD chewed me up and spit me out.

Levels 15-18

This is when I first hit LFD! All tank, all the time. Ragefire Chasm is okay. It provides minimal opportunities for getting lost, which is my greatest fear. My first RFC experiences sounding something like:

“Oh god, where is it going!”

“Why am I facing the wrong way?!”

“I can’t hit things when I am facing the wrong way!”

“Where is that ROGUE going?”

“I hate DPS!”

I began this experiment when Voss wasn’t home, although I did consult him with regards to my spec. At level fifteen when I first started LFD tanking, my spec looked like this:

Blood and Thunder – 2 pts

When you Thunder Clap a target affected by your Rend, you have a 50% (100%) chance to affect every target with Rend.

People in lowbie LFD don’t wait for the tank to pull. They don’t necessarily attack the same target the tank is attacking. AoE threat generation is very, very important. With the available tools, rend and Thunderclap become a very solid combination for AoE. This was important to me.

Incite – 2 pts (and another point when possible)

Increases the critical strike chance of your Heroic Strike by 5% (10%, 15%), and gives your Heroic Strike criticals a 33% (66%, 100%) chance to cause the next Heroic Strike to also be a critical strike.  These guaranteed criticals cannot re-trigger the Incite effect.

It’s my understanding that Heroic Strike is an “I Have A Lot of Rage” thing. (LFD provides me with plenty of rage, don’t get me wrong, but not exactly the same thing). When I was first tanking in RFC, I didn’t have a lot of rage – mostly because people kept attacking things before I did. My rage problems seemed to be greatly alleviated within a few levels. At that point, a boost to heroic strike is useful – but mostly I just wanted it to get down to the second tier.

RFC made me feel mostly decorative. Some groups were better than others about at least pretending to want the protection of a tank, but most classes can handle having these elites hitting them in the face if the healer is willing to heal them. I actually had one notable incident with regards to this.

I hate to say it, but the most aggravating people for warrior tanks at this level…are other warriors. In most cases they have the same gear as I do, and functionally the differences between us are little – except that I need rage from things hitting me in the face and I don’t get it when they charge ahead of me into combat. I decided that a battle stance + charge + defensive stance macro was too complicated. The fury or arms warriors or whatever? They don’t have that problem.

So one of my RFC groups had just such a warrior. He was sprinting ahead of me the whole time, charging groups at a pace I couldn’t hope to match. We approach the center of RFC – where the packs start to get complicated with casters, patrols, and high potential for adds. We’re heading along one of the ramps across the lava and I pause – my healer is not within range. I stop, intending to pull a few of them with my crossbow. I may have grinned a little at this point, thinking to myself – Fury Warrior is going to charge in, heedless off the fact that I’ve stopped. Sure enough, he charges the entire pack at an angle, leaving all of us in his dust. Predictably, all five+ mobs begin to eat his face. Somehow… I’m just a tad slow to run in and taunt them off. The healer does not have line of sight on him (this is why I waited for her). The warrior dies. The rest of us proceed to finish off the hostile folks and the healer resurrects him. My only regret about the way the whole thing went is that the healer apologized to the warrior because he died.

Me behind the screen: “Don’t APOLOGIZE to him! He deserved it and he knows it!”

The warrior: “It’s ok, my bad.”

Me: “YES IT’S YOUR BAD.”

Me in party chat: “OK, everyone set?”

When they talked about warrior “rage” bars, I somehow wonder if I wasn’t prepared.

Level 18-20

Today being a day off, I seized the opportunity while Voss was here to try tanking again. This was fortunate, because I had forgotten what my buttons do and also, apparently I was wrong about so very many things. Along with rested XP, one Shadowfang Keep run was enough to get me from 18-20, quite literally dinging twenty as we killed Arugal. It probably helped that I took a wrong turn at some point and so we cleared a bit more trash than was strictly necessary.

My group was actually really nice. Not talkative, but uncomplaining, and very polite at the end. I thanked them for their patience with my noob tanking. At the end, I’ll say I wasn’t awesome but I also wasn’t the worst tank I’ve seen in LFD, mostly because:

1) I had a shield

2) I never left my healer behind

3) I used my taunt button.

Notable quotes from this dungeon run are mostly Vosskah’s.

“Don’t use your Thunderclap now. Save your Thunderclap. Use your shield slam. Do you see how you lost that mob? That’s because you didn’t shield slam it. Shield slam is your friend. You will learn to love it.”

“Did you hear what I said about shield slam? If I don’t hear a CLONKING sound, it’s WRONG.”

“See, now what you want to do is alt-tab to that other guy there – see how your threat on him is getting…oh, you lost him.”

“You only tanked as a pally before, right? Well, that explains it.”

“We are much more active tanks. If you aren’t hitting a button, you’re also doing it wrong.”

“Now that’s the CLONK I like to hear!”

“Do you… We…We need to work on your UI after this. And you need some macros with startattack.”

Me: “But, I asked Noodle if I needed to make startattack macros and he said I didn’t need them!”

“Noodle is a pally and an idiot. You don’t listen to Noodle.”

“Save enough rage so you can thunder clap those adds when they join in. Yes, that is the mark of a good tank – you plan ahead.”

Incidentally, with Voss helping me tank I waver back and forth between intense concentration and hilarity. He makes me think that these entries could turn into a blog all their own a la (Shit My Dad Says): Shit My Tank Says. After all this dinging and instancing, I had another talent point to spend. I was told to put it here.

Hold The Line

Improves your critical strike and critical block chance by 10% for 5 sec (10 sec) following a successful parry.

That means I first put another point in Incite and then a point in Hold The Line. So at level 20, my talents look like this.

I look forward to am scared out of my wits to tank again, but I will attempt to do it. Until then, we agreed to write these posts and have Voss offer some technical commentary after, because that’s his thing. I’m just good at joining up with random people to kill pixels!

Now just to explain a few things in there. (That’s Voss writing here)

Tanks at low level are very rarely in danger of dying.  Any healer worth their salt will keep you alive as long as you don’t let them die/pull a whole room.  That’s why I really emphasize focusing on threat talents much more than survival.  We’ll see how Vid does, but at the moment, I don’t think there will be any survival issues until level 40 or so.

Startattack macros are very important, especially if the person is mostly used to being a range player.  At range, you have the luxury of seeing the packs of mobs hopefully from a distance.  When tanking, you’re usually in a bunch of mobs and it can get hard to see that your character is now standing idle because your target is dead.  Standing idle for other tanks is one thing, but for a warrior it is the absolute worst thing you can do.  Your white hits give you rage.  Yes, you get some from being hit, but again, we’re talking low level here.  Your hits are what gives you the rage you need to do your job.  You’re not hitting someone, you’re not getting your resource replenished and thus you grow weaker.

Easy macros can simplify your life greatly.  Just enter the following for most of your attacks:

/startattack
/cast Shield Slam

Replace Shield Slam with the name of your abilities and put this on your action bars.  You’ll see quickly that it makes a huge difference if you’re not used to being in melee.

As for Noodle being an idiot, well…  I’ll take that one back.  He’s one of the best tanks I’ve ever worked with.  But in this case, because Vid is usually at range and new to melee and tanking, he was wrong.

Thoughts on levelling a warrior – Follow up

Thank you everyone again for your nice words and comments following my first two posts.  I really appreciate it!

Here is one question that Snack asked in the comments that I thought warranted its own post.

After levelling to 55 pre-Wrath, I rolled a Death Knight and never looked back – though, coming back to it now is tricky, and since tanking is much more a fluid stance dance, it feels almost overwhelming to see the different set of tools for each stance available!

From what you’re preaching (finding the balance between survivability and control) is there a point in the current Prot skill toolbox that you can say “This is a bad idea to have before max level?” You mention Last Stand as an “Oh Crap” button, but I’m thinking of Sunder Armor and (iirc) Devastate, which adds a tick of SA anyway!

the question is, then, how do I look at a talent and judge it’s worth, pre-80?

That’s a really good question, thanks!

The way I look at it is: “what am I currently doing?”  If my focus is mainly levelling as prot, current talents like Improved Disciplines (lowers the shield wall cooldown by two minutes) and Safeguard (Reduces the damage from your Intervene target by 30% for 6 seconds) are definitely not talents I would pick.  The reason is they are most often used in very specific circumstances which would mostly occur in a raid situation.  So if you’re not 80 and raiding, those are not very important unless you’re taking them for a specific situation and you’re making a conscious decision to take them.

Here is a very quick improvised spec for a level 50.  My goal is to get to warbringer as fast as possible.  As you can see, it’s missing some of the survival talents, or has the minimum amount of points in it.  This would be very efficient for questing.  I would try it out in instances and see how it goes.  Taking a good look at it, I’m confident that it would be fine.

Let’s take a look at the talents I’ve bypassed.

Last Stand:  A very good emergency button which gives you a temporary max health boost.  Why not take it?  I would definitely take it once I was closer to 80 and the dungeons were tuned a bit harder.  While levelling though?  It might give you the boost needed to win against some harder enemies, but I don’t see us using it often enough to warrant it.  It’s mainly a question of what will give me the best bang for the talent point right now.

Improved Spell Reflect: Another good talent but again, how often will it be useful compared to talents like Revenge which will make your levelling much faster and your threat skyrocket?

Vigilance: This one is a harder choice.  As an 80 tank, you would need it as our threat did not scale as much as the DPS’ has in Wrath.  The new version in Cata will not have the same effect (steal 10% of your target’s threat and add it to yours – It will now reduce damage, refresh the taunt and give you vengeance) which is a welcome change in my view.  If you’re instancing often, you might want to invest a point in it even at lower levels.  I would probably take this point from Anticipation.

As you can see, the list is not that different from a normal spec.  But just moving those few points can help a lot.  Again, the only rule is to look at what you’re trying to accomplish and adapt your spec to it.

Thoughts on levelling as a warrior tank

I’ve seen second hand how bad warrior tanks can be in early instances.  My wife, Vidyala (author of the Pugging Pally blog), encountered many during her travels.  I would often look at her screens and wonder what was going on.  The tanks were new, yes, but also they seemed made of teflon: nothing was sticking to them.

Please stop yelling at me!

 

It actually was the same way when I first levelled a warrior as a tank.  I think new tanks worry so much about not getting killed that they pick every talent in the tree that would keep them alive…  while disregarding threat.  We’ll pick anticipation for dodge and sink 5 talent points in it.  We’ll take last stand, shield block, etc.  The fact is, in most low level instances, just wearing plate (or mail before 40) and wielding a shield will ensure your survival.  Just make sure your healer has full mana before pulling and it will be fine.

I have recently levelled a couple of lower level warriors.  I remembered how painful my first instances were so I changed my talent selection to focus on threat.  I took all three points in Thunderclap to start with.  Funny enough, nothing pulled from me in Ragefire Chasm.  Our healer was even smiting, so I’m guessing survival was not an issue either.

Now I’m not advocating tanking at level 80 85 without any survival talents taken, not at all.  But I do see too many tanks focus solely on survival in normal levelling instances.  Tanking is a fine line between control (threat is a huge part of maintaining control) and survival.  Focus too much on one or the other and you will struggle.  If one aspect of the equation becomes trivial, you can focus more on the other aspect.  I, for example, am currently tanking level 80 heroics without the mandatory 535 defense rating.  I have swapped many pieces of gear for dps gear and thus have very impressive threat and dps.  Now what allowed me to do this is even with this gear set, my avoidance is high and my health above 40k.  Here, survival has been trivialized which allows me to focus on threat.  It’s the same for low level instances.  The mobs will not kill you quickly, so you can focus on the control.

Focusing on the threat talents is also going to be pretty important come Cataclysm.  Since we’ll be forced to pick a tree and stick with it until level 70 or so, we won’t be able to spread our talents around.  Now, most sane people would not level just by instancing and will be doing a fair amount of questing.  To quest efficiently, you’ll want to be able to generate a fair amount of damage.  Thankfully, the same talents that will allow you to generate a massive amount of threat in instances when you’re tired of just questing will also make your questing smoother and faster.

Here is a list of talents that I think fit the goals described above: balance your survivability with your threat output. I understand that making a list of talents using the old trees when patch 4.0.1 will drop in the very near future is pointless.  I will instead try to pick some talents that should be prioritized in the new trees.

Tier 1:

I would start with Blood and Thunder to give myself a bit more AoE power.  I would then go for Incite.

Tier 2:

This one is tougher and I’ll know more once 4.0.1 is out.  I would start with Hold the Line and then would either go for Gag Order (I love the utility at high level but you might skip it while levelling) or Shield Mastery.  Again, I’m not in the beta so I do not know if rage is a problem at lower levels.  If it is, then Shield Specialization would be better.  Keep the talents in Tier 2 in mind though.  It is the busiest level with a possibility of spending up to 10 points here.  If there’s a talent you do not pick later on, do come back to this Tier.

Tier 3:

Warbringer.  No, don’t start with Bastion of Defense.  Warbringer is what makes a warrior feel like a warrior should.  It gives you the ability to chain charges and intercepts without changing stances.  This is probably the most iconic talent currently, so just take it.

Now, while the first choice was very easy, the second one isn’t.  Yes, Bastion of Defense would be a logical choice.  It will make you uncrittable and give you a 10% damage boost when you dodge, parry or block.  The problem is that at those levels, the chance of this happening is  around the 15% mark.  It’s still probably worth it but do remember this if you decide to pick it.  It will become stronger the more avoidance you get.

Last Stand is a very nice “Oh Crap” button.  It would probably be my next choice.

Concussion Blow can be good while levelling to avoid damage but I would mostly use it as another interrupt for casters.  Since warriors are more vulnerable to spell damage, this is a useful skill.

Tier 4:

This is interesting.  It seems that you can talent Revenge right away!  Except that at that point, you’re level 39 and you won’t get Revenge until level 40 (according to the Wowhead calculator).  Right.  Revenge is a very good attack and you’ll use it often in the future but I would strongly suggest that you go with Devastate first.

Victory Rush is what will make you unstoppable while levelling.  It will heal you for 20% of your total HP while damaging your enemy.  You can also talent it so that it can be used when the enemy is lower than 25% of its health but in this case it would only heal you by 5%.

To me, Devastate and Revenge are much more important to talent at this point.  I’m not even sure if I would talent it at all for now and might just use the two saved points to go and invest some more in Tier 2.  It will be very useful in time, but maybe not while you’re in the mid-40s.

Summary

I’ll stop here for this post.  The tiers beyond Tier 4 are fairly straightforward and quite honestly, I need to see 4.0.1 for myself before trying to figure this part out.  Is Safeguard worth it?  Yes, definitely when raiding as you can intervene the second tank and lower the amount of damage they’ll receive by 30% over 6 seconds.  But while levelling?

I think it’s very much a question of choice.  If you’re mostly levelling and instancing from time to time, I would simply focus on the threat talents and pass on talents like Bastion of Defense for now.  If you’re instancing more, then BoD is probably a very good investment.  Really, the thing to remember is to adapt your spec to what your needs are.