Early tanking in Cataclysm - advice needed

[middling]

Ok, I will try to make this short.

At the end of wrath my druid was dual spec, healing and tank, this made LFD Q times great. However, neither of these were really very challenging, even in heroics.
As we all know it was an AOE fest. The only real issue I had was holding aggro against raid level DPSers.

Once all the changes were announced for Cata I decided to concentrate on a different main character first.

I actually changed my dual spec to heal, boomkin for Cata but now I am tempted to try tanking again.

I am only level 81 so no need for heroic or raid level tips yet.

My questions are:

1. Is is a lot harder now
2. Should I still stack stamina from 81-85?
3. Is there any specific dungeon or encounter that makes it more challenging as bear tank?

I know the encounters from other characters but haven't tanked them yet. The fire boss in Blackrock seems a bit challenging.

Thanks

[Russfeingold]

all the dungeons are easy mode, and the best way to learn is from experience.

[Mystile]

Threat is easy still, aoe can be iffy when you're with less competent players. Bosses and trash can be lethal, crowd control is vastly advised, not so much in Blackrock Caverns and Throne of the Tides, but even Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle normal mode trash can be challenging without an add or two being cc'd.

You cannot truly "stack stamina" or "stack agility" while leveling, none of the gear has gem slots, you have a choice between stamina, avoidance, or threat trinkets, take what you want, but think of the healer as mana is an actual concern this expansion.

I have not found a specific encounter to be harder or easier as a bear compared to other tanks. On my warrior I have actually wiped groups in Stonecore by shield slamming the spell reflect buff off the boss causing the healer to be stunned for ~10 seconds.

[erebusman]

Ok, I will try to make this short.

At the end of wrath my druid was dual spec, healing and tank, this made LFD Q times great. However, neither of these were really very challenging, even in heroics.
As we all know it was an AOE fest. The only real issue I had was holding aggro against raid level DPSers.

Once all the changes were announced for Cata I decided to concentrate on a different main character first.

I actually changed my dual spec to heal, boomkin for Cata but now I am tempted to try tanking again.

I am only level 81 so no need for heroic or raid level tips yet.

My questions are:

1. Is is a lot harder now
2. Should I still stack stamina from 81-85?
3. Is there any specific dungeon or encounter that makes it more challenging as bear tank?

I know the encounters from other characters but haven't tanked them yet. The fire boss in Blackrock seems a bit challenging.

Thanks

Normal mode dungeons are almost 'easy' theres a few small trip-ups if you do something utterly dumb you can wipe but even then if you have decent reflexes .. you will probably be ok.

Those same fights on heroic will thrash you for making said mistake.

Theres no point in 'stacking' anything from 81-85. The heroic game is all at 85 your going to want as close to a full set of 333's as you can get before tanking a heroic. If you can get a 359 or two from rep that would grand. Maybe 1-2 346's from badges.

Obviously blizz is being a badge whore atm but plans to fix that with level 80 bosses giving out some badges, but if not get involved in those ICC 10 runs people are doing and the 'weekly raid'. Those are CAKE JP's and helps buy 346 gear.. really the only practical way to gear up right now until Blizz fixes the situation.

Once gear is solid - PICK your dungeon you want to run (preferably one of the easy ones - theres a poll on that here somewhere) read about the bosses before you go in.

Then prepare to have 'fun'.

[Lackluster]

1. No
2. You'll hardly have any gems on the way to 85. Once there I'd say stamina till you're comfortable with your HP, after that agility.
3. I have encountered none. Fire boss is easy, move him through the magma before his molten armor buffs wears off. Ozruk in the Stonecore is probably the one most tanks fail on.

On my warrior I have actually wiped groups in Stonecore by shield slamming the spell reflect buff off the boss causing the healer to be stunned for ~10 seconds.

Bad groups then. So little damage going around there (paralyze hits for 40k when it ends, boss melees for 15k max).

[Bumbaclot]

I can't give you a lot of info regarding gear and stats for tanking, but what I can tell you is that you need not fear it. Just the fact that you decided to come here and look up info on how to improve your skill is already a big sign that you're a better player than 95% of the tanks we see everyday in heroics. Try to tank a few times on regulars while you reach for lvl 85 and heroic gear and you'll know all the ropes by the time you have ilvl 329.

[Aldurok]

For gear, basically just pick up tank gear (stam/agi/avoidance) as you go. Doesn't really matter a whole lot what you get as almost everything has high stamina on it now and your tanking leather peices will obviously have agi and avoidance.

As for the instances themselves, while they're not really all that hard, they do require you actually pay attention to what you're doing now.

Biggest advice for them would be to get used to marking targets. At the very least, get the classic skull icon on your primary target, and possibly an X to show what you'll be moving to after that one is down. When CC-ing, mark up what mobs you want CC'd with what (tell people what the marks mean, not everyone knows the "standard").

Binding 1-9 on the numpad (or the function keys) to raid marks is definitely recommended, can be done in the default keybinding menu. Marking quickly will keep impatient dps from doing the wrong things.

[Frozenstine]

3. Is there any specific dungeon or encounter that makes it more challenging as bear tank?

One thing I would completely reccomend is the movement speed to boots enchant, even if you have to use the old lv 80 one. I'd say more than half of my deaths in heroics have been the cause of lag and bad reaction time, bosses like Ozruk in Stonecore, or that first boss in BRC even, are the ones that are going to trip you up.

Otherwise, tanking will be pretty much the same, if you have CC use it, if you're feeling really saucy, throw an entangling roots out there too, that'll give you some breathing room in case you don't trust your pugs to use theirs (happens a lot).

Be open to trying strategies, even if you know yours works best. I queue up as a tank alone a lot, and you end up getting 3 or 4 people from the same guild in your random, and they might say before a boss something like "We usually just stack up right here and you tank the boss right there" and you might be thinking "well what I do is tank the boss here and you guys stack there." And for argument's sake, you may be right--but in that situation, I try to just "let the wookie win."

Above all, god I'm running out of pep-talk things to say, above all, tank aggressively. If you have two CCs up and you are just finishing the last mob that's not CC'd, you might want to throw a Skull on the patrol that's heading this way and kill those instead of having to worry about it pulling accidentally, or worse, waiting a minute for it to patrol all the way back. If you set up a nice group of 3 elites and 1 normal mob to CC 2 and kill the others, but suddenly no one is CCing, pop Berserk and start mangling the crap out of them. Pretty much use any of your CDs, whenever they are up/you need them, even if a boss is coming up soon.

Cheers to bear tanks!

[Myrlae]

Ok, I will try to make this short.

At the end of wrath my druid was dual spec, healing and tank, this made LFD Q times great. However, neither of these were really very challenging, even in heroics.
As we all know it was an AOE fest. The only real issue I had was holding aggro against raid level DPSers.

Once all the changes were announced for Cata I decided to concentrate on a different main character first.

I actually changed my dual spec to heal, boomkin for Cata but now I am tempted to try tanking again.

I am only level 81 so no need for heroic or raid level tips yet.

My questions are:

1. Is is a lot harder now
2. Should I still stack stamina from 81-85?
3. Is there any specific dungeon or encounter that makes it more challenging as bear tank?

I know the encounters from other characters but haven't tanked them yet. The fire boss in Blackrock seems a bit challenging.

Thanks

Tanking isn't a lot harder now, BUT bare in mind that your gear isn't that good that you can just chain AoE pull everything. You'll need some CC.
Stamina stacking is kinda... not that great atm, of course you need a certain amount of HP to survive some stuff but avoidance is your best friend these days.
There aren't really many encounters that are challenging but try out Blackrock Caverns/Stonecore/Grim Batol in normal mode before you go into the heroic ones.

[Oinkz]

Don't stack stamina IMO. I am a rather fresh feral as well and I have followed this guide here http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1126995943 with LOTS of success. I follow its gemming and everything, threat has always been super easy and cc makes things incredibly easy. If you are stacking agi instead of stam people might make fun of you for low hp at first but healers will love you because of the avoidance. I have been going great and am almost finished with my gearing. Here is my link if your interested in seeing how i am doing my entry lvl gemming/gearing

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%C3%ADd/simple

[Kagonos]

Don't stack stamina IMO. I am a rather fresh feral as well and I have followed this guide here http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1126995943 with LOTS of success. I follow its gemming and everything, threat has always been super easy and cc makes things incredibly easy. If you are stacking agi instead of stam people might make fun of you for low hp at first but healers will love you because of the avoidance. I have been going great and am almost finished with my gearing. Here is my link if your interested in seeing how i am doing my entry lvl gemming/gearing

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%C3%ADd/simple

1. No it's not much harder than before.
2. Except in your old gear, there's really no opportunity to stam stack. Target pieces with crit/mastery, just like you will at 85, but really anythings fine. Reforge any non-mastery stat to dodge if you feel like it.
3. None that are more difficult for a bear who knows how to play. Use your CDs liberally and wisely. Barkskin's such a short CD, there's no reason not to use it often, Survival Insincts doesn't have to be an OH SHIT button. For example, use it during an omega phase or immediately after in HoO...