Going Prot, what do I need to know?

[DarthDonut]

For Cataclysm, my guild is shrinking down to a 10 man, and they asked me to tank.
I've been fury /arms since I started playing, and I know both of those specs pretty well, but I have no idea how to play prot. I've noticed on these forums how many people love it, so I was wondering what separates a great tank from the okay tanks.
Any advice?

[Deleted]

To start with,a great tank would put up with dps's(and rarely healers's) mistakes,rather than merely executing fixed assignments.You should see a good tank picking his taunts/charges carefully and working out the safest positioning while in a fight.Basically a great tank should be aware of the reason of any of his moves.Generally an okey tank would become a great tank only via experience and repetition.That's just my opinion thought.

[Ferrington]

Start by reading guides posted on these and other forums regarding your gear and optimal threat rotation. However, that is just the beginning of becoming a great tank. Know every boss mechanic. Know when you will need to use cd's to help healers. Know when you need to move. Practice, and you will learn.

[DarthDonut]

Okay, thanks for the help.
Being fury I can probably sympathize with the tanks I pulled from now >.>

[hom]

1. Be a leader
2. Don't be a clicker
3. Own the game

[Willferel]

A good tank doesn't die or have others die. Really though. It is about situational awareness, using cd's, and correct taunts.

[Deleted]

smn wrote a great post.

A great tank does everything with thought. He prioritizes his rotation/debuffing after what the raid needs, whenever he moves or anyone else moves he repositions the boss to allow melee players on the move get back into action that second faster, or to help Ranged buy distance from the boss. "Is there anything I can do to increase raid dps?"

A great tank monitors the raid, "Can I use Shield Wall on myself to help my healers heal/preshield the raid?" The great tank also makes sure his raid knows what he's doing to let them draw maximum benefit from it. (It's for this reason I love Safeguard!)

The great tank basically does a perfect job of generating threat, debuffing and keeping himself alive, and while doing this he does what he can to help the rest of the raid do their job better/with more ease.

[Chomag7]

Tank is a position of great responsability. Raids need several healers and several dps-ers but how the encounter goes relieas mostly on the tank.

Also, raids depend on a tank to be online, so if your schedule doesn't allow you to be online A LOT, just don't do it.

[Alianthos]

I have three criterias for you :

1. Very good at taunting. Seriously, bind your taunt somewhere close to your fingers, and be fast at it.
2. Good use of CD : dont be cheap with these. Be aware of your health pool at any time, be aware of your debuff, and use your defensive cooldowns wisely. How many times did I saw fellow tanks dying while STILL having Shield Wall or Last Stand available to them.
3. Awareness : check your raid status. Check the melees, do they have room to DPS ? What can you do to help the raid ? If you are offtanking, did you use Shattering Throw during Bloodlust ? Things like that =)

Threat generation is just another rotation. War Prot rotation is not hard, dont worry about this. The 3 points above are much more important in my book

Welcome to our world, you're on the good since of the fence

[Mammoth]

The biggest difference between prot and dps, is that in prot your rotation is much much less important.

A tank's job is (in order): to stay alive, maintain the highest possible dps from the raid, maintain the lowest amount of healing required, work on his rotation.

This ofc changes when you're rotation is holding back the DPS because of threat.

As a warrior tank on a boss always: keep saunder at max stacks, keep comm shout up, keep thunder clap up, keep demo shout up, unless the paladins are doing it for you.
Even when you're not currently tanking the boss make sure this gets done. If you're not taking damage, you can also swap to battle stance to do a shattering throw.

Another useful thing you can do as a tank is have Recount or similar. When you die, always find out why. Was it lack of heals, was it avoidable damage, did the boss enrage, ...

---------- Post added 2010-09-08 at 03:28 PM ----------

(I love Safeguard!)

After reading one of Iyona's safeguard posts, I specced into it.

Whatever you do as a tank, never ever safeguard the tank on Festergut, unless you know where the debuff timer is. It was a progress fight for us at the time, our last try of the day and we had the DPS sorted. But then in a moment of brilliance, I intervened the tank. Unfortunatelly, just as Fester applied a debuff. The debuff went to me who already had 9 stacks and killed the entire raid in under a second with a single key press. It's funny now, but not at the time

[Ður]

Rule #1 Never Tab Targets

[kork123]

Head over to tankspot and watch their videos on tank awareness and other stuff helped me a lot when i began.

[Mammoth]

Rule #1 Never Tab Targets

Rule #2 Always tab through trash to make sure you have plenty of threat on them all. Warriors have strong single target compared to aoe.

In a situation with only a few mobs however, clicking targets is much faster, and should prevent taunting the wrong boss.

[bishe]

I personally seen people try to pick up tanking and just failed very badly. IMHO if you don't have the passion to tank or enjoy tanking your not gonna be a great tank that's what seperates the great from the ok. So read some guides do some test runs if you start enjoying it without getting bored in the first few runs you might have a TANK in ya.

[Spinz]

As everyone else says, check guides etc regarding warrior tanking. However I am not sure how warrior tanking will be in beta. In the current beta build, warrior AE tanking is somewhat horrible and considered very broken, but that said, its beta. Everything subject to change.

However, when taking large groups, a nice thumb rule is to zoom out (there is a command for it too, which of can be macro'ed) Macro; /console CameraDistanceMaxFactor 7 (this will allow you to alter the maximum zoom distance)


Gives you a great view of the surrondings, which is kind of crucial when tanking. I'll reply to this post whenever I feel like I left something out (which I most likely did)

[Deleted]

If your mates ask you to tank in cata you should:

1. talent prot right now
2. start learning the basics in dungeons with your pals
3. search for guides everything you are lacking
4. think seriously if you like it or not otherwise it will be bad for you and your pals
5. write this post (seriously, you wrote this expecting all the solutions and tomorrow be a good tank? just go step by step and enjoy all those learning steps ^^)

[Asmodejjj]

Let me tell you how I learned to tank. I went 72 levels without trying it, and I realized it's actually really fun.

1. Warriors are FANTASTIC for single mob/boss/snap threat. AOE threat not so much, every tank but a bear will pull better AOE than you.
2. To AOE tank, spam Revenge (talented), Thunder Clap (whenever off CD), and Shockwave (strategically maneuvered to hit as many targets as possible).
3. Always be on the lookout for mobs that might have run away from your aggro, or pats that are inc
4. Gem full stam, except for the 2 hybrid gems needed to make your meta gem work.
5. Don't give up, tanking is hard at the beginning, but you'll soon get the hang of it

[DownButStillOut]

1. Be a leader
2. Don't be a clicker
3. Own the game

Number 2 is optional. I click btw >.>

[sscavenger]

The most important thing to remember is this. Love it or hate it. There is no in between. Tanking is about pain, yours. You will be blamed for everything that goes wrong, dps will think it is hilarious to pull off of you. Even if it means wiping the raid. You will have to kiss the asses of your healers, they determine whether you live or die. If you die they will say you just aren't good enough. The best way to start hating tanking is to pug.

Pugs blackened my soul, crushed my spirit, destroyed me. Remember, you will either hate it or love it. Those are your only two choices. Oh and be prepared for others to steal your gear. Constantly.