Tanking From Level 15+ w/ Cata in mind...

[Disposition96]

So I've just started leveling a tank Warrior, I've got him up to level 18 and I'm enjoying playing him as a tank; I want to be the best tank I possibly can be at level 80, I have a 6k GS rogue that I love but I'm tired of playing him so I've decided to go from one extreme to the next... What I'm wondering is with Cataclysm coming out would it be worth the wait to level a tank than? Will the changes be that great, or will it be about the same? Any input here would be appreciated.

Regards,

[Wesz]

I strongly suggest you level now if you want some perspective on tanking.
Think about it like this, if you want to be awesome at tanking, and above everyone else don't you want heaps of experience? Practice makes perfect, and waiting just delays your path to being the best tank evrah! Nothings stopping you from re-rolling in cata, and even then you could just level your warrior to 85, and then start with a druid, paladin or deathknight to get even more perspective on tanking. Personally i suggest levelling to 80, learning your stuff inside and out so you have the upper hand when cataclysm is live. You still have time

[Shelly]

There are only a few reasons to wait:

1. BoA equipment from guild rep that will last until 85.

2. BoA equipment that hasn't been announced yet - possibly a strength sword and a shield.

3. You like the current content and are OK leveling up through quests you've already done.

That's really about it. You're tanking at such a low level, although I think you'll hit 80 before Cat ships, that pretty much no mechanics will change. We'll all be relearning our warriors when 4.0 patch hits, with folks from the beta having a head start. So relax and if you're having fun while leveling then don't stop believin' hold on to that feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllliiiiiiinnnnnnnn' street lights! Peeeeeeeoooooooopppppppllllllllllleeeeeeeeee oooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry, got a little Journey in my post.

[Alianthos]

Well if you play a bit hardcore, you can get to 80 in a week or two with full heirlooms. I think that prot warrior maybe the fastest leveling class, and it only gets better when you get closer to 80.

Also about Cataclysm, Warrior tank seem to be in a pretty good place. Intersting spec, fun talents !

My advice : level up you warrior now, and see where it goes ! If you like the feeling, then try to push it till 80, gear up a bit, and practice in heroics. You will either love it and become addicted to tanking because it's both demanding and rewarding when you sucess at tanking, or you will dislike it and go back to DPS.

When I tank, I literally feel I'm driving a spaceship : heavy armor, first in the line, tons of things to monitor, quick reactions needed, almost instinctive, yet so fluid. This mob is slipping from you ? Quick, taunt it back, Slam his face for quick threat but dont forget to devastate this other one and cleave both, Thunderclap on CD, oooops SHOCKWAVE IS AVAILABLE BOOM. Owait, i'm at 20% HP ? SHIELDWALL LASTSTAND CANTKILLME ANYMOAR ! WTF now all dead ? Let's pull next pack, gogo ! ThunderclapShieldslamDevastateCleaveCleaveCleave.

Hum yeah, sorry, got a litthle Journey too here xD

[Skyler Ruin]

There are only a few reasons to wait:

1. BoA equipment from guild rep that will last until 85.

2. BoA equipment that hasn't been announced yet - possibly a strength sword and a shield.

3. You like the current content and are OK leveling up through quests you've already done.

That's really about it. You're tanking at such a low level, although I think you'll hit 80 before Cat ships, that pretty much no mechanics will change. We'll all be relearning our warriors when 4.0 patch hits, with folks from the beta having a head start. So relax and if you're having fun while leveling then don't stop believin' hold on to that feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllliiiiiiinnnnnnnn' street lights! Peeeeeeeoooooooopppppppllllllllllleeeeeeeeee oooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry, got a little Journey in my post.

These arent reasons to wait. If anything they are reasons to start now. Tank your way to all the BOA gear you can handle(even in cata to get the new boas for your newly rolled tank). As for #3 there is no reason he would have to lvl thru quests with the exception of 1-15. If you want a worgen or goblin as your race then you will need to roll one once Cataclysm ships but atleast you can be getting much needed experience with certain mechanics that will not be changing(line of sight, etc.).Plus warriors can be difficult to master if you get tunnel vision like most players and never see any spells other than the "tanking" ones. It takes time. You got that right now.

ah..shelly, the last "e" in "people" is silent. you typed alot of silent "e"s . lol

[Shelly]

These arent reasons to wait. If anything they are reasons to start now. Tank your way to all the BOA gear you can handle(even in cata to get the new boas for your newly rolled tank). As for #3 there is no reason he would have to lvl thru quests with the exception of 1-15. If you want a worgen or goblin as your race then you will need to roll one once Cataclysm ships but atleast you can be getting much needed experience with certain mechanics that will not be changing(line of sight, etc.).Plus warriors can be difficult to master if you get tunnel vision like most players and never see any spells other than the "tanking" ones. It takes time. You got that right now.

ah..shelly, the last "e" in "people" is silent. you typed alot of silent "e"s . lol

If you think I overtyped the E then somehow you've managed to avoid hearing that Journey song. (They denote the high note.)

Anyway, I stand by my assertion that those (especially #3) are the only reasons to wait. As is I think a lot of my alts will stall around level 58 or so when I hit outland. After 3 alts there's not really all that much there to see and do and I don't look forward to going through it again.

I agree that it's nice to get a handle on the mechanics as well, but if he's played a rogue he should have a pretty good grasp of how those things go.

@Disposition, here's a hint. WATCH what the best warrior tanks in your guild (or better yet on the LFD) do and try to copy them. Keep an eye on their rage bar as well, if it's always full and you check recount and see that they hardly used heroic strike at all, well they've failed. Although with the Cat changes to HS I'm still waiting to see how it will be.

[Skyler Ruin]

If you think I overtyped the E then somehow you've managed to avoid hearing that Journey song. (They denote the high note.)

Anyway, I stand by my assertion that those (especially #3) are the only reasons to wait. As is I think a lot of my alts will stall around level 58 or so when I hit outland. After 3 alts there's not really all that much there to see and do and I don't look forward to going through it again.

I agree that it's nice to get a handle on the mechanics as well, but if he's played a rogue he should have a pretty good grasp of how those things go.

@Disposition, here's a hint. WATCH what the best warrior tanks in your guild (or better yet on the LFD) do and try to copy them. Keep an eye on their rage bar as well, if it's always full and you check recount and see that they hardly used heroic strike at all, well they've failed. Although with the Cat changes to HS I'm still waiting to see how it will be.

How many dps do you know of that know what "Line of sight" is and how to use it for tanking ??? I'm willing to bet none, especially if they have never tanked.I'd go as far as to say even with his rogue being lvl 80 he probably doesnt use kick to interupt casters(in pve) to assist the tank with multiple caster pulls. If you are a tank and you dont know what line of sight is and how to use it then you dont have the right to call yourself a tank. A hunters pet can hold agro on 50% of the mobs of a pull, but with LOS you can get them all grouped real nice for awesome AOE dmg.

[Shelly]

How many dps do you know of that know what "Line of sight" is and how to use it for tanking ??? I'm willing to bet none, especially if they have never tanked.I'd go as far as to say even with his rogue being lvl 80 he probably doesnt use kick to interupt casters(in pve) to assist the tank with multiple caster pulls. If you are a tank and you dont know what line of sight is and how to use it then you dont have the right to call yourself a tank. A hunters pet can hold agro on 50% of the mobs of a pull, but with LOS you can get them all grouped real nice for awesome AOE dmg.

Well at this time LoS while used isn't quite as important as just knowing how to use your multiple interrupts. FoS is the best example of it where against the 3-caster groups you charge one guy, shield bash him, intercept or walk to the next guy, heroic throw on the last guy and just let him come to you.

Also I'm presuming he's been paying attention, guess I'm just more optimistic than you. I think a lot of rogues kick, dks DG in casters and silence, priests chain if need be, paladins repent and so on. Just a sign of how long they've been playing and how well they know their toolbox and if they've been paying attention to what the tank does.

Anyway, none of those mechanics are going to change and while he can get more practice now or wait doesn't matter that much. Like I said before I feel that if you can level up through the boring stuff that you've done before go for it, but I'd rather wait for Cat and experience new content and hopefully have some nice shiny new BoA gear to help me through BC and LK where I've done all the quests to death.

And I'm not sure where you're getting that aggro deal on a hunter's pet. Maybe with a tanking pet and BM spec they will but where most hunters are these days (MM spec with a wolf) that critter can't hold aggro for shit.

[Debikkel]

Well if you play a bit hardcore, you can get to 80 in a week or two with full heirlooms. I think that prot warrior maybe the fastest leveling class, and it only gets better when you get closer to 80.

Also about Cataclysm, Warrior tank seem to be in a pretty good place. Intersting spec, fun talents !

My advice : level up you warrior now, and see where it goes ! If you like the feeling, then try to push it till 80, gear up a bit, and practice in heroics. You will either love it and become addicted to tanking because it's both demanding and rewarding when you sucess at tanking, or you will dislike it and go back to DPS.

When I tank, I literally feel I'm driving a spaceship : heavy armor, first in the line, tons of things to monitor, quick reactions needed, almost instinctive, yet so fluid. This mob is slipping from you ? Quick, taunt it back, Slam his face for quick threat but dont forget to devastate this other one and cleave both, Thunderclap on CD, oooops SHOCKWAVE IS AVAILABLE BOOM. Owait, i'm at 20% HP ? SHIELDWALL LASTSTAND CANTKILLME ANYMOAR ! WTF now all dead ? Let's pull next pack, gogo ! ThunderclapShieldslamDevastateCleaveCleaveCleave.

Hum yeah, sorry, got a litthle Journey too here xD

Dear Mr Alianthos,

To make your experience while tanking a bit less stressfull, allow me to give you a tip. You decide what to do with it:

1. Create two new Macro's:

#showtooltip Devastate
/cast Devastate
/cast Cleave (or Heroic Strike if attacking 1 target (boss))

This macro cleaves everytime after you devastate (since you have enough rage anyway)

#showtooltip Charge
/cast Charge
/cast Shield Slam

This macro is amazing if you need to pull aggro on a mob away from you. You stun and get tons of aggro. This is handy in the situation where you just taunted one and see another target loose.

But I totally agree on the intensity of warrior tanking (I am not so pro at it yet).

Bye

[Stanton Biston]

Since you're coming from a Rogue, I'll echo the above and say start now. Tanking warriors are fairly JOHN FUCKING MADDEN about how they work and have slightly more buttons than a DK that they *can* press. In any case:

World of Warcraft puts a tremendous amount of pressure on tanks. Unlike every other role in the group, if a tank dies, the group is especially likely (if not certain) to fail. More than once in a 5 man I have had a healer die on a boss fight but still manage to pull though, but tanks dying is always, always bad.

Plus, the onus of knowledge and leadership tends to fall on tanks as they literally lead groups through instances. People chastise a DPS for not knowing a boss mechanic. People ditch tanks that don't after a considerable amount of rage.

If I were you, I'd level and tank with a DK first, just to get a hang on tanking before attempting to master both the role of tanking and the class of warrior simultaneously.

[Alianthos]

#showtooltip Devastate
/cast Devastate
/cast Cleave (or Heroic Strike if attacking 1 target (boss))

This macro cleaves everytime after you devastate (since you have enough rage anyway)

#showtooltip Charge
/cast Charge
/cast Shield Slam

This macro is amazing if you need to pull aggro on a mob away from you. You stun and get tons of aggro. This is handy in the situation where you just taunted one and see another target loose.

Thanks for the imput, dont worry i'm not stressed while tanking =)

I do not advise these macro, tbh.

For the 1st one, maybe on raid bosses it would be okay, but with the current cookie cutter spec (13/3/53, without Focused Rage), you cant spam HS brainlessly in every situation.
In some situation you'll find yourself with a full rage bar, but binding HS only on Devastate will not give you a good uptime, because half of your GCD are used for something else than Devastate. Unless you bind HS to everything, but then you have a problem. Because basically, outside of ICC (where you dont take a lot of damage), when you're not tanking, or maybe even when you're tanking, you can get yourself rage-starved. Yes, it happens, it does. Saying that warriors have full rage in every situation is a fallacy.

So I advice you guys to bind HS to one single button, or mouse scroll, and use it wisely (i.e. spam when full rage, carefull spam when not-so-full rage).

Regarding your second macro, well that may fail if your target is insensible to the Charge's stun. Depending on your latency you may very well be behind your target in no time and your SS wont hit. It can also be tricky because its cooldown will be the Charge one, so if SS is on CD, you wont notice it, meaning you will have to check Shield Slam CD to use it efficiently. Be carefull.

An interesting macro I can suggest, and that will be all :
/use Heroic Strike
/use Revenge

In a situation where you spam Heroic Strike, it will grant you a super reaction time when Revenge is up, or procs.