Q: this the way to tank?

[Zarghol]

So I'm leveling a warrior, currently low 70's, and as I've started to level as prot recently I decided to tank today. Haven't tanked since I did last boss in UK normal as bear, but I figured it'd be fine, normal dungeon, standing at 12K buffed HP I thought "can't be hard".
Turned out, it could. I dunno what happened really, but the healing priest(9K mana@69) had to drink after every three-mob group, a DPS thought I had too bad gear, all that(running heirloom shoulders, chest and mace, northrend green shield and some late outland and early northrend greens).

What I'm really wondering is this: I think it shouldn't be too hard to keep me up with that health, do you disagree?
And: I charge in, shockwave, thunderclap, cleave(glyphed)/devastate/revenge. This should be enough to keep aggro on three mobs, or? They seemed to get on the loose to people attacking them, and I figured that's because they didn't target my target, but one charged in at the healer too, which is a tad worse. I'm "used" to bear lolol I swipe and maul a bit, so it was a bit of a change. Anything wrong with this for thrash?

Any answers appreciated (: Not used to tanking or taking charge(pun intended), so other advice for a to-the-core-newbie-tank is appreciated too.

[Rahirn]

I could be wrong, but to improve a bit, after charging and establishing a threat, do Demoralizing Shout and Shield Block.

[smartAXE]

health doesnt mean anything if you get hit like a truck

[Zarghol]

Yea, I did demo shout too at a couple of the pulls, might've been that too tho. And I might've been too saving on the shield block CD, I thought it was more of a ohshit-button like Last Stand though?

[Trishot]

On the aggro thing, use tab target a LOT combined with HS/Devestate/Shield Slam. Cleave produces little threat (pretty numbers though with decent gear and a DPS weapon) compared to HS.

And I tend to shockwave as little as possible for more rage (stunned mobs = no one hitting you = low rage) which might influence your TPS.

For surviving take the green crafted items when you can, else quest/random drops sometimes have proper tanking stats, which makes it a ton easier on the healer.

[coolaide2]

Yea, I did demo shout too at a couple of the pulls, might've been that too tho. And I might've been too saving on the shield block CD, I thought it was more of a ohshit-button like Last Stand though?

Shield wall is an oh shit button shield block is an offensive CD combined with shield slam or defensive against lots of light hitting mobs.

[Rahirn]

If I remember correctly, Shield Block has a 1 minute cooldown. If you remember using Enrage on your bear at all, it's almost available at every pull. So, for 10 seconds, you block all physical damage. That gives your healer a great break. Keep Demoralizing Shout up at all times. It may not seem like the AP reduction is much, but any mitigation you can glean from your own abilities will make healing you easier.

The cooldown similar to Last Stand you might be thinking about is Shield Wall, which is a different skill altogether. However, I caution you not to be too afraid to use these cooldowns if things get hairy. More often than not, if you're unwilling to use them unless the world is going to end, you won't use them at all. What's the point of having an ability if you never use it?

[Powell]

health doesnt mean anything if you get hit like a truck

avoidance doesnt mean anything if you get hit like a truck - avoidance is to RNG based, if your unlucky and get hit twice in a row while you dont have enough stamina to counter it, your fucked either way.

you need a good balance of stamina and avoidance.

Yea, I did demo shout too at a couple of the pulls, might've been that too tho. And I might've been too saving on the shield block CD, I thought it was more of a ohshit-button like Last Stand though?

its a 1min cd, you will most likely have it available at every other pull, it should always be used, its not only extra avoidance, but its also extra threat from Damage Shield.

theres quite a large gap between outland gear and northrend gear, so i would suggest you pick up atleast a full northrend set of items if you dont feel confortable doing it with your current gear.

[DAST]

I remember the same thing happened to me on my warrior at 70, just ding a couple times and replace the shit outlands things and you'll be fine.

And also quick tip, glyph devastate, spam it and agro on multiple mob pulls will be a joke for you.

[vendelin]

Think of Shield Block as something inbetween, use it to minimize damage over time, but onky use it when you infact are taking damage (not when all your mobs are stunned by shockwave). Also, use Shield Slam, it is your high threat spell. Tab around to make threat on all mobs. Also, use your whole toolbox: disarm, stun and silence

[SoulPoetry]

erm, isn't shield block 40 seconds? http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=2565 + http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=29599 = ???

so yeah, basically ready every pull. charge -> TC -> shockwave -> demo shout during the stun -> shield block when they come out of stun and stuff should be dying by the end of it.

[Illunis]

health doesnt mean anything if you get hit like a truck

check your defense and avoidance, smartAXE is exactly right. if you have 12k hp but you have no extra defense and avoidance, you're just a human(or whatever race) mana sponge

[Rahirn]

I forgot about the Talent. It's been awhile. :

My point stands! Available on pull

[Kirri]

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...+Dawn&cn=Reyha
My little protadin project -the blues, hands, shoulders and boots, have been aquired recently -used to have the full cobalt set, which gives a very nice mix of defence and and stamina.
Can't give you warrior specific advice, but looking at that gear might give you some ideas.

Which instance did you do, and was the healer healing specked? UK in my experience is very smooth, nexus with it's casters, healers, silencing effects, and weird debuffs/manaburns (some of these are of course worse for paladins, but not great for warriors either.) can give a group quite a headache. Had a laggy tree druid in there the other night and got a few pulls down with me lying dead on the floor :P Found AN easier in many ways.
9000 is not a lot of mana for northrend instances, and a lvl 69 in nexus would be in for a bit of pain either way.

No idea about the threat issues, the warrior experts have to help on that, but as you said, if the healer's getting aggro you're having a bit of a problem, but to be honest threat gen does tend to increase with practice. And if you haven't already: at least for paladins getting a northrend weapon helped quite a bit...

[Lustant]

Some of this stuff has already been said, but this is how I go about tanking multiple mobs:

1. Put up a skull mark. Bind this to F1 or something easy to hit. I have F1 through F4 specifically for marks. This well let the group know you're going straight after that mob before any other.

2. Charge in to the skull mob. When you hit it, your first reaction should be shield slam, followed by a cleave queue (since it's next attack, and yes, glyph it) and a thunderclap.

3. Now the fun begins. Make certain your aggro on the skull mob is solid, as it gets towards mid-health, or even before once you get the hang of it, you can start tabbing through different mobs hitting them with Devastate (don't glyph this at 70 or low gear levels), or Revenge, or Shield Slam, whatever is up. All the while keep on cleaving any time you're over about 40 rage.

That should effectively get you through most aoe groups. Keep in mind as warriors when the amount of targets gets near 5-6 +++ we start to have a bit of difficulty with aoe happy groups, so just try your best. At low gear levels, or while leveling it is important to take advantage of abilities that are less gear dependent. I strongly suggest glyphing for Vigilance, as an extra 5% threat is very nice when given to an aoe heavy class. Also try and give this to a DPS that doesn't take an aggro reducing talent. It works wonders. You keep your top dps's aggro down, and get more threat. Another ability that is great at low gear levels is Shockwave. You do NOT want to open with this, as it will rage starve you at one of the most important times of the fight (the pull). Instead follow up with it after you've done step 2, you can even wait a second to make sure you get hit and are full of rage. Then while they are stunned, keep cleaving and tabbing through targets with attacks, Tclap every cooldown, etc.

Last thing, if you are having a hard time surviving, make sure you pick up as many talents that help survivability as you can. Don't be afraid to pop Shield Wall, Shield Block, Last Stand, Potions, etc if you really need them to stay alive. Tclap and demo shout will significantly reduce the damage you take already, so you should be ok.

Worst case, try and get some more defense. Remember that mobs 3 levels above you require 5.6% (I believe) crit reduction from defense. If you get that via cheap enchants or crafted greens, you will see a HUGE difference in how your health spikes (this is likely your issue, feel free to link your armory, I can take a look).

Well there ya go, good luck and sorry for the wall of text.

[muffinboy]

So I'm leveling a warrior, currently low 70's, and as I've started to level as prot recently I decided to tank today. Haven't tanked since I did last boss in UK normal as bear, but I figured it'd be fine, normal dungeon, standing at 12K buffed HP I thought "can't be hard".
Turned out, it could. I dunno what happened really, but the healing priest(9K mana@69) had to drink after every three-mob group, a DPS thought I had too bad gear, all that(running heirloom shoulders, chest and mace, northrend green shield and some late outland and early northrend greens).

What I'm really wondering is this: I think it shouldn't be too hard to keep me up with that health, do you disagree?
And: I charge in, shockwave, thunderclap, cleave(glyphed)/devastate/revenge. This should be enough to keep aggro on three mobs, or? They seemed to get on the loose to people attacking them, and I figured that's because they didn't target my target, but one charged in at the healer too, which is a tad worse. I'm "used" to bear lolol I swipe and maul a bit, so it was a bit of a change. Anything wrong with this for thrash?

Any answers appreciated (: Not used to tanking or taking charge(pun intended), so other advice for a to-the-core-newbie-tank is appreciated too.

As a tank i know how this is .... painfull, yet boring way
Ok, ALWAYS start with either demo shout (do so they focus at u) or Thunderclap (dosen't matter, you'll ALWAYS be using it) After charge ofc (with warbringer u can use also intercept)
Shockwave when they're all 2geter and then agian do Thunder Clap.
Devastate the main target and shield block
If u like CD's like me do a macro

/y (something funny line)
/cast last stand
/cast shield wall
/cast shield block

You should be saved

(my warrior's armory is here below)

[ss09]

In a multi-mob pull, Thunderclap every time it comes off cooldown. Given the 1.5 sec GCD and 6 sec CD on Thunderclap, use Thunderclap, then 2-3 abilities, then Thunderclap again. Losing aggro to your healer shows poor skill, you completely missed a mob with your abilities if that happened.

Don't focus too much of your threat on one mob. If the closest person is 10% of your threat, there's no need to continue to focus it, change to another mob. Even just Shield Slamming a different mob every time it's up will be a good start. Use Omen or Aloft or Tidyplates.

Demo Shout is very bad for threat (something like 0.1% of a Devastate) but it will help for reducing incoming damage. If you are getting low on hp, use Shockwave or Concussion Blow to stun the mobs and reduce the damage you take. As someone else said, make sure you stagger your cooldowns; don't Shockwave and Shield Block when they're still stunned. I also prefer to not use Shockwave right off the bat because you won't have any Rage to do any threat if the mobs are not attacking you. Build up some threat first, then Shockwave.

If you are really taking a lot of damage, see if you can get someone else in the party to CC.

Remember to use Vigilance.

[Deleted]

so yeah, basically ready every pull. charge -> TC -> shockwave -> demo shout during the stun -> shield block when they come out of stun and stuff should be dying by the end of it.

QFT. Was about to say the very same thing. Also remember to never have mobs behind you, to keep Spell Reflect up when needed (often!) and to interrupt any spell you can't reflect. This should be more than enough for you to consider yourself tanking properly, but remember Warriors have loads of utility abilities which can help even further.

Also remember your Charges; a mob can't hurt you if you're out of range...

[Zarghol]

Shield BLOCK. I knew I'd feel stupid sometime in this thread : D I even have it hotkeyed more conveniently than shield wall, yet I forgot about it. Well this is embarrasing.

Anyways, I really appreciate the advice everyone! I'm honestly surprised people are so NICE with their comments too, I mean, am I still online? I'll make sure to be careful with the shockwave in the beginning and instead build up some threath before, and do the marking. I actually forgot about that, after I learned to focus the tank and just keep attacking that target. Got a defense enchant for my shield too, cheap stuff.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...varr&cn=Rhazok And my armory, just in case : ) (really no idea what's up with the belt, didn't play on him for months until a week ago or so)Switched out a +AP-trinket with the heirloom that restores 2% health/kill and it will probably get updated pretty fast now, as I'm currently charging through as many quests as I can. Again, thanks for the advice everyone.
Edit; build is pretty screwed up too, I'll prolly fix on it. Got a pretty good idea on how it's supposed to be, this was a solo-build I thought up in a hurry really.

[Lustant]

Glad to help.

After looking at your armory, here would be a good build (including glyphs) for your tanking off-spec:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LAZZVItrx0zidIzsGo:MAZMm

Go ahead and pick up Armored to the Teeth, and Cruelty as your next talents. Remember i'm keeping in mind that this is just for leveling, your prot spec is likely to be somewhat different at 80. The most important thing I saw was you didn't pick up Deflection, Anticipation (max it out), and Improved Thunder Clap (this is actually a HUGE part of your survivability and threat on AOE packs, and a big piece of your problem). Anyways that would give you far better threat and avoidance. Puncture really isn't necessary especially if you are eating a lot of damage, you'll get the rage. Improved Spell Reflect, Disarm, and Disciplines are not useful for leveling tanking. Imp Disciplines will be useful at 80, but that's something else.

Asides from that, try and get a faster MH weapon. You're gimping your rage generation a bit, and the times in which you can cleave (with a 1.5-1.7 weapon you can get 3 cleaves instead of 2 in the same amount of time). Also your gear that currently shows is not that heavy on stam. Look into leveling crafted greens or blues, you'd be amazed generally how cheaply you can get a set with just stam, str, and def, which would be perfect for you.

Good luck.