Need help with tanking!

[timbucker]

So i use to play back in vanilla and a bit of bc but i stopped for awhile and just recently came back. I have a 90 hunter that ive done some SoO in from lfr/flex/norm but thats about it. I have a lvl 71 warrior i'd like to level up and learn how to tank but im just really confused on whats the best route to take on leveling and just preparing myself for raid tanking.

[Valech]

Always nice to welcome new tanks.

Anyway, I will keep the answer short. First of all, regarding gems, enchants and rotation, please consider the sticky in this forum. It is very detailed and up to date.
Second, whatever you do until lvl 90 will hardly matter at level 90 and even less prepare you for raid tanking. As a tank at those level areas, you will feel unkillable and overpowered, since you are. Things change at the current max level.

As a tank, aside from gear choices and enchantment/reforge/gem tuning, three things matter:
1) Active awareness: Even if you have done a boss for 30 times already, chances are, that a random combination of abilities will ut you into the position to do something you have not done before. To speak a bit less cryptic I´d like to give you an example: You killed Malkorok for 30 times. Your ranges are reliable and you know they will soak the purple pools. Suddenly you realize, that one of them will not make it this time: His shield is low, he is slowed, he has to dodge to many orbs, anyway, the thing that seperates good tanks from mediocre tanks is that you, if you are currently offtanking, heroic leap into that pool to help that range out. On heroic, that may save the raid. Now, people may disagree with me if that is a smart move at all, but I just wanted to give you an example for active awareness.
2) Passive awareness: Know the encounters. Most encounters follow very strict patterns, be it the change of phases or the application of tank debuffs. Know what they do and even get basic knowledge about abilities, that may not directly concern you as a tank. Time your cooldowns (WHich shhould NOT be regarded as oh-shit-button) accordingly to ease up your healer´s life. Knowing where to stand at what time is 40% of good performance.
3) Active mitigation: Now, since MoP, active Mitigation is every tank´s bread and butter. There is a huge chapter about that in above mentioned sticky. To give you a hint: In the warrior´s case the active mitigation is Shieldblock or Shieldbarrier. To know when to use the one or the other is crucial to your survivability.

Everything else is finetuning. Have fun. Read the sticky.

[idefiler6]

Check out our sticky labeled "5.4 Protection Warrior"!

[Chaosturn]

Tanking is the easiest role in the game right now. Threat is officially still a mechanic but essentially if you shield slam a mob it's gonna stick to you til it's dead. build rage and use shield barrier when in need. tank swap at x stacks as always.

And as said, the mmo champ guides are good for all classes/specs, check it out

[IKT]

Tanking is the easiest role in the game right now.

If you know what you're doing that is, the entry level barrier for tanking is still the highest of the 3 roles, but after you get over the initial hump it's the easiest to coast along on.

[timbucker]

Thank you for the help I was just wondering if there was anyway to kinda "prepare" myself for the raids and ty on that heroic leap tip i will have to practice it :P. The only issue i couldnt fully understand from the sticky was when im 90, do i go for crit/mastery/parry,dodge. Since my knowledge of how this game works now is outdated by many years i don't want pick a certain stat that i really dont understand how everything fully works, sorry if its kinda hard to understand the question.

[Valech]

Thank you for the help I was just wondering if there was anyway to kinda "prepare" myself for the raids and ty on that heroic leap tip i will have to practice it :P. The only issue i couldnt fully understand from the sticky was when im 90, do i go for crit/mastery/parry,dodge. Since my knowledge of how this game works now is outdated by many years i don't want pick a certain stat that i really dont understand how everything fully works, sorry if its kinda hard to understand the question.

Thats easy to clarify. Hit 7.5% hit, then 15% expertise. After that you go for Parry/dodge, giving parry the edge. That mostly means 320 parry into red, 160parry/160dodge into yellow and blue depends on the gemboni is worth it. If not, 320 parry.
people will argue, that mastery has its advantages over avoidance, but there are many threads with that topic. My last information was, that both are quite equal in terms of survivability but the avoidance build yields more damage output.

Gl.


Edit: Oh, and regarding that "trick": It was more an example for an uncommon and unplanned action, that needed to be done. Entirely replaceable with every situation, that wasn´t forseeable: Adds spawning at weird positions, a boss delaying a certain ability because he executed another ability first, a phase that didn´t start because something else was triggered... etc.pp.