Afraid to Raid Tank

[Jedith]

I've had my prot warrior on the back burner since the release of this expansion for one main reason. I'm afraid to tank LFR raids due to not knowing the fights and the sense that people have absolutely no patience now adays. I feel like one screw up on the tanks part and everyone is up in arms.

I LOVE tanking 5 mans. I absolutely love it.

But I feel that with raid bosses there are so many mechanics that I have no idea about at all and that I will totally bugger it up.

Switch tanks at a certain amount of stacks? tank the mob *HERE* on the map as opposed to *THERE*. etc etc...

[Deleted]

It's really not as bad as you think. Look up the fatboss guides for the first three bosses of MSV, they'll give you an idea of what to do. The only exception I can think of is on the stone guard, you have to tank all 3 of them together.

[Thirtyrock]

wow insider (www.wow.joystiq.com) also has good 5 second lfr boss guides, which give you the very basic version of the bosses!

[Daedelus]

Took me a while to pluck up the courage to queue as tank on my warrior. I knew the fights but only as ranged dps. There was nothing to worry about - make sure you've got DBM and it gives you all the warnings you need for tank swaps etc.

ToT might be a challenge at the moment but T14 is a doddle now.

[Reckonin]

Actually, I find LFR tanking to be not that bad. When you first enter the instance whisper the other tank and say you are new and need help. Most times you will find friendly people that will help you out.

[Stiffkittens]

The best thing to do is just do the fights as DPS and watch where the boss is positioned, after that if you have DBM installed you won't have much to worry about. Just try and have fun, once you do it the first time it will only improve. If you would like another tank to queue with hit me up in PM and i would be happy to help.

Goodluck!

[Jedith]

I'm not sure about ToT. I'm waiting for 5.3 to be released so I can gear up to ToT standard tank gear while DPSing thanks to the 'spec choice' option they're adding (rather than putting the raid at risk from being undergeared).

Yeah, thats a great idea. Aside from the nervousness of not knowing the encounters, there's also the thought that I'm not geared enough. or if I don't have a 500+ ilvl people won't want to deal with me.

I'm only level 85 right now and I'm sure once I get to that point where i'm comfortable in the current raids, new ones will be coming out or we'll be on to the next expansion

[tyggyr]

I feel qualified to comment here because I was in exactly the same position recently - I'd essentially skipped 5.0/5.1 raiding completely because I'd gotten burned out on raiding by being in a really late-night hard modes raid team in FL & DS...

Anyhow I'll second the advice above:

• Read up on the fight: If you check in wowhead under the boss name, in the comments section you'll often find a green post which describes the fight from the LFR perspective with different sections for tank, heal & dps.
• Do the fight as DPS and follow others around so you know approximately where to go
• Pay close attention to debufs; sacrifice a bit of dps time to mouseover a new debuf and read it carefully to understand it. Lots of debufs are of the type "does xxx damage to players close to you", but the occasional one is "does less damage the more players are close to you" (council fight in ToT LFR part 2).
• Don't try to act like you know the fights if you don't or it's going to be painfully obvious. Do the above homework, then ask the other tank to clarify if you're not certain about something.

Finally, on trash be cautious with your pulls; some raids (ToT) have patrolling mobs that hit fairly hard. If you see that the other tank has all trash mobs' aggro, taunt something off of him; it'll boost your vengeance and let you help more and make it less likely the other tank will die. If you have really high aggro (seems that some tanks know how to generate threat, and some... just don't), make sure you understand how to manage your damage reductions well so that you don't die quickly.

[dkdk]

As people have said, just do some research and start with the t14 LFRs in order MSV>HoF>ToES. Tanking these are fairly easy if you know a little bit about the encounters.

I tanked normal MSV with sub 463 ilvl when I first started gearing my DK and didn't have issues. If you can get yourself through 5 mans and get 460+ ilvl you will be fine for MSV, and just work your way up.

As a side note; don't let people get you down, part of learning is failing and if you give up just because a few people tell you you are bad, then you are just hurting yourself. Persevere and you will get better, just remember you are playing this game for fun and don't let others ruin it for you .

[Deleted]

Dont tank then? Clearly its not the role for you if you are uncomfortable with some responsibility

[KaziOfTheSkies]

My friend ninjainvited me to a msv N10 when I logged on my 458 ilvl Blood dk last week. We got to Will before people ragequit over some fight between the other tank and the crap dps leader. It was the most horrific, yet strangely exciting, experience Ive ever had . It went a LOT better than I thought it would and theother tank was able to help me a lot, especially since I had the basics already from being healer there.

[Deleted]

Find a tank friend or guildie, or even one from trade, that is willing to go with you and tell you what is important and what not.

[klaps_05]

as long as u dont make my mistake you'll be fine. what i did was i got my warrior to 480 ilevel to have access to new LFR, but in reality my gear was around 455 fights are far from complex, just have a read through and youll be fine. half the things in lfr you can ignore, the other you can just tank. 1shot beam on durumu is prolly the only thing you have to avoid in the whole place.

[Electromatt]

When you first enter the instance whisper the other tank and say you are new and need help.

My luck I'd whisper the other tank that I'm new and he'd say the same thing lol....

[Reckonin]

My luck I'd whisper the other tank that I'm new and he'd say the same thing lol....

That happened the first week of ToT LFR's and I ended up just opening the Dungeon Journal and read the abilities that are Tank specific and we got through it.

[Valech]

So I don´t quite understand. What keeps you from informing yourself to an extent, that makes you comfortable with tanking? Aside from the (imo less helpful) Dungeon journal there is a ton of well written gudies and even great videoguides floating in the internet.

[Appolyon]

But I feel that with raid bosses there are so many mechanics that I have no idea about at all and that I will totally bugger it up.

They've taken almost every lethal mechanic either so weak or just plain gone (ie eyesores on Duru) that tbh every progressive level LFR, Normal and Heroic are different. Be sure to look at the LFR versions or you'll be wasting CD's a lot. In LFR tanking I mostly use CD's as a result of AFK Looting or after they've all died (like happened last week on a Downdraft). All of that said - to reiterate, they really made LFR so that you could learn while you tank or play any role really. Even making lots of mistakes you should still be able to get your 4th redundant item after a few minutes. Most likely, there will be a few players that do know the fights pretty well. You may find it helpful to make a chat window for Whispers only and keep a dialogue with your healers and the other tank - Instance chat is usually full of kids and QQ.

If you like 5 man tanking just do the same thing really; Let hunter pets that taunt die, keep your taunts and cooldowns for mechanics and keeping the important players alive. Its a great place to just have fun as a tank - you really can't mess it up so bad that you can't recover it.

[Raur0s]

Just ask a more experienced friend or guildie to Q up with you, they don't even have to be a tank as long as they know the fight inside out

[Delath]

Its a great place to just have fun as a tank - you really can't mess it up so bad that you can't recover it.

LFR Lei Shen says hi :P, but yes I generally agree that tanking LFR is not as scary as it may sound as long as you have some basic idea of the fight mechanics like where you are supposed to stand.

[Maelstrom51]

LFR is a joke to tank. I have seen plate tanks under 450k health fully buffed tank all of LFR. You should be fine.