Anyone else ever have "Tanking-nerves"?

[Cirque]

I have this too, actually, though I know I am a fine tank. the spotlight position, where I determine pace, speed, and am basically either keeping the group safe or not is really stressful, even though it never really goes 'wrong'.

I love tanking, but this stops me from rerolling. As a healer I feel much safer - you're doing a great job if nobody notices you and that's exactly what i like. Plus, I know exactly what I'm capable of, and not, and fails and good stuff are much faster apparent than when I'm tanking. As a result, I know right away when I could have played better, or did an excellent job - I'm not always scratching my head wondering what others think of my performance, since, if I'm any good, nobody will even know I'm there.

as a dps I feel in the middle, meter competition, where on my main I'm doing fine on, is a constant stress struggle for me on alts, which is why I don't usually have any dps alts. I can't pull the same numbers on an alt (lfr gear at best) as I do on my main (hc raid gear) and that frustrates me, and it makes me feel 'bad'. I know it's completely irrational, much like 'tanking-nerves'.

Hope you feel less alone in your tanking nerves now, and that you learn to deal with it!

[fangless]

Wait till you raid, and wipes can depend on how fast you react/well you play :P

Mad props to the raiding tanks that can manage the fight/not die, and call out misc fight mechanics for the raid.

[Velerios]

The easiest solution would be: don't care too much. In Heroics let dd that pyro an enemy before you even pulled it simply DIE!!!

For me tanking have 3 rules:
First and most important rule:

1.) Keep aggro from your Healer!
2.) Keep incoming damage as low as possible.
3.) Do damage

I don't say that you should keep aggro from the dps, because this is is already done with the do damage part. The only exception where you should keep the aggro even for the dps is on enemys with an aggro-reset or enemys that get stronger when someone in the group dies. But these are very rare.

So keep your pace as much as you want, and if there are some people who want to go faster and faster and faster, simply let them die. As Tank you have normally a queue-time of 5 seconds, so why bother with ignorant people.

Simply have fun and a good time, that is the most important thing. And don't let others stress you. And try out different tanking-classes: some classes are more stressful than others!

[Kasterix]

As a healer I feel much safer - you're doing a great job if nobody notices you and that's exactly what i like. Plus, I know exactly what I'm capable of, and not, and fails and good stuff are much faster apparent than when I'm tanking. As a result, I know right away when I could have played better, or did an excellent job - I'm not always scratching my head wondering what others think of my performance, since, if I'm any good, nobody will even know I'm there.

Your tank will notice, whether they say anything or not is another thing.

As bad healers can make any run stressful for a tank we tend to notice the good ones very quickly, and appreciate the fact that you can handle the role you chose as healer... Well most tanks appreciate it anyway, I know I do.

[Rorke]

I used to Tank in Wotlk and early Cataclysm. When I first started to tank, I was just like the OP. Always nervous if someone died or I did a wrong pull ect.

But after awhile OP, you learn not to give a shit anymore. Its like working at your first job at some minimum wage retail store. You take it all seriously at the beginning but once you see how fucked up everything is, you just learn not to care anymore. Towards the end of my Tanking Career, I wouldn't even say anything whether it was a wipe or a good group. It was so faceroll towards the end, that I felt like everyone was a NPC and I was some hero dealing the most damage and taking the most damage out of the group. The rest were just cannon fodder.

I also used to get all upset when i was a new tank when a DPS would pull a mob. It wasn't till the end of wotlk that I would later thank these dps for making me a better tank and I actually loved the challenge. To all of those DPS who pull, I salute you.

[JakeSteel]

I had this problem back when I played. I was told by people I was pretty good, and after my first run through Ulduar with a new guild, I was asked to be the main tank.

Even with all the compliments, when I started and for a good while afterwards I was would get anxious. Not because I thought I was terrible, but because I knew that if I slipped at all, even just a little, I would feel the rage of my teammates.

I eventually got used to the sometimes shitty behavior of players and went on with it. Good gear/heals keeping me alive kind of contributed as well.

[Aquamonkey]

Focus the healer. If they have full mana, pull faster.

[joppas]

Keep practicing at tanking, the more you tank the more comfertable you will get. Being a tank is alot like being the leader, you set the pace of the group. If you bring a sucky tank you will most likely end up wiping or using alot of time clearing the dungeon, but if you bring a good tank he can basicly carry the group.

There is nothing wrong with monitoring/keeping a eye on the people in the group, if you can pick up on weak points and adapt you are what i would define as a good player.

[Tuvok]

Taking up tanking takes balls. Tanking takes balls. The fact that you care about your performance is a good thing, harness that and become a good tank. It's a special role, and one that I became addicted to as soon as I tried it. I'm a warrior of course so I am especially sentimental about it.

The road is not going to be smooth, but it doesn't take long to learn what's what and develop your own little ways of dealing with things. It is by far the most rewarding and fun playstyle in my opinion and it makes you feel more in control than any other role does. Being a good tank requires determination and passion, a certain attitude that people who like to sit 40 yards away knocking out big crits don't understand. To us it is not about the numbers, it is about taking command of the situation, rising to the occasion and just generally being a total boss. You've got to have confidence in your abilities. You will fuck up every now and then, but you can't let that get you down, learn from it and proceed to own the shit out of everything from that point onwards.

Good luck my friend.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

No, I've been tanking since I started (don't quite remember the date, was late TBC) and never have actually had any anxiety about tanking. Kinda funny since I did suffer from rather severe anxiety for quite a long time between then and now but never actually had any of it cross over into my tanking. I've always seen it as a position of leadership and have treated it as such. The need for control is part of what drove me to tanking as my first role; Most of my life I've been in situations with very little control so when I find something I can control I dive headlong into it and master it very quickly.

[WeaponXAnimosity]

The first time I tanked, I felt the same way. Researched the optimal specs and rotations before I hit the dungeons and if someone died, I'd automatically think I did something wrong. Same feeling whenever I tried out a different tanking class but over time, I got use to the routine and tanking becomes second nature. The thing with WoW is that all classes, no matter the role, conform to a set routine, to a certain extent. Pop this cooldown, wait for that proc, stay out of fire. Kinda like muscle memory.

[Deleted]

Tanking dungeons has 3 aspects:

Tank Gear vs Healer Gear
DPS Level
Healer Mana

If your gear is insane, you rarely need heals. So you can keep pulling almost ignoring the healer. This swings both ways.
If the dps is trash, there's no real gain in pulling more, since more mobs lead to confussion and with no dps your healer will likely go oom before the pack dies.
If you need heals, you'll have to make sure your healer is in range and has enough mana.

So what you need is an easy interface that displays DPS (Recount, Skada) and to see your healer's mana. Just know to look for it and keep going.
I personally LOVE fast tanks, but I've got a mindset similar to yours, always trying to do better than best. There are those who wanna play, by stearing only with their tongues and they'll be frustrated if you go too fast, then you're left with 2 options:

a) Use the noob card, and ignore their nerdcries while continously pulling at the same speed.
b) Be nice. Slow down, go to the kitchen for a snack after every trashpack (maybe even during it).

[Krashkam]

My take on tanking 5 mans, as the tank your job is to be the most aggressive member of the group. If a dps gets the bright idea that he should pull for you, let him die, then remind him that he is not in fact a tank, and should wait the second for you to show up and get to work on the next trash pack. If its a healer that decides that pulling is for healers, God help you. That kind of healer displays a level of pure arrogance that you cannot hope to match.

However, tanking is also about comfort. If you are pulling "slowly" yet safely, you are doing your job right. If you are pulling slowly because you think your healer needs a mana break after every pull, or you need to take a leak, you are going too slowly (btw, you have an insta-queue, take that leak BEFORE you queue.)
Once you are more comfortable with tanking that's when it is safe to take risks. Risks such as pulling like a madman, or swapping out tank gear for DPS gear. But if your recklessness causes a wipe, take a step back on that aggression and tone it down, and most importantly if its your wipe, own your wipe.
When you have the toys for it, then it might be "safe" to go full raging maniac on 5 mans. Pulling multipe packs, in DPS gear, and being the tank DPS love and healers might dread, depending on how squishy you are in the DPS kit. However, this state of reckless tanking takes a lot of gear to get away with (in my case roughly half a mill HP as a blood DK in DPS gear) and intelligent use of Cooldowns.

Tanking is about being the raging maniac leading the charge. The level of raging maniac, you can pull off, that is up to you.

[Kasierith]

Practice tanking for long enough, and it will all become second nature to you. You get used to that quick glance at your party's mana, relaxing and spacing for a moment to let cooldowns come down some, identifying the first target to go towards, having the taunt backed up for a drifter.... half the time when I tank, I barely pay attention because I'm so used to the rotation.

[septor]

I always am edgy when I'm tanking something new. I usually try and run it a few times as DPS just so I can get a good idea what is going on. I _always_ feel like I should be doing better and at the end of the instance when the group says "great tanking" I'm usually shocked because I don't feel that way most times. It's mostly unjustified but I think it keeps me honest.

A good tank will always do his/her job despite the circumstances and whoever they got in party. Be it with ninja pullers or else.

A bad tank will almost always react like * you pull you tank * *stand to watch till you die because you started 0.1 sec before i reached the mob*.

I disagree with this. If I'm not pulling it's for a reason, either I don't feel comfortable pulling another group or I don't think the rest of the party can handle another group. I _hate_ DPS who pull extra mobs just to speed things up. If I'm not going fast enough say something and I'll pick it up don't be a dick and just pull for me.

Secondly, the only time I don't "you pull you tank" is when someone accidentally pulls an extra group.

[cFortyfive]

Having played in vanilla...how the hell can you be still get nervous nowadays ? Even just blindly banging my forehead onto the keyboard holds aggro just fine while you had to switch targets like some monkey on crack tanking multiple adds if you were a warrior and still people could easily pull aggro if they wanted. Not even mentioning that mobs in heroics don't even deal damage if you don't tank them.

[Kanadei]

Having played in vanilla...how the hell can you be still get nervous nowadays ? Even just blindly banging my forehead onto the keyboard holds aggro just fine while you had to switch targets like some monkey on crack tanking multiple adds if you were a warrior and still people could easily pull aggro if they wanted. Not even mentioning that mobs in heroics don't even deal damage if you don't tank them.

Even if this was completely true for all tanking classes (which it isn't) - I would love for you to show me a vanilla raid fight which required the same level of tank competency as say - Feng or Stone Guard.

Active mitigation is one of the more skill-based tanking models, especially for raid content.

In regards to OP: I would say nerves are purely due to new content. I know that I got to a point where I pulled every heroic the same and if the group didn't like it I just requeued. Unfortunately sometimes the best way to be a "good tank" is just to be a dick.

Confidence is contagious.

[cFortyfive]

Even if this was completely true for all tanking classes (which it isn't) - I would love for you to show me a vanilla raid fight which required the same level of tank competency as say - Feng or Stone Guard.

I've been just farming Heroics, but I always feel on-edge the entire time.

Apart from suggesting to read what the op wrote because I don't see him mentioning raids - I don't know for which tanking classes it isn't true. From my experience it is for warrior, paladin and dk. Don't have a monk yet and tanked only once on my druid which didn't seem too bad.

[Griffter]

I was nervous when I first started tanking, especially on my first raid night. You get used to it, though. The hardest part about tanking 5mans is remembering the layout of the dungeons.

[Blueobelisk]

Tanking is like driving. It's takes a bit to learn it but once you do and you're familiar with the roads (dungeons), your experience will guide you and it'll be second nature.