Im bad at tanking

[Andahla]

Tanking is so much stuff to keep up with, idk how to do it (pally) Im resolve in the stance that there must be a more simple tanking class.

Are there any hints or opinions you guys can give that can help me become a better pally tank? Or maybe suggest an easier tank?

[ojg]

Uhm, hard to tank as a paladin?

[Soisoisoi]

Prot Paladins are the easiest Tank currently, imo. Download CTC CLC Prot from curse, it should make your life a bit easier.

e: Sorry, tired, wrote CTC instead of CLC. Here's the addon:
http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/prot...n-helper-clcpr

[Dublock]

I am genuinely curious, do you find healing to have the same problems?

[Andahla]

Prot Paladins are the easiest Tank currently, imo. Download CTC Prot from curse, it should make your life a bit easier.

Sounds interesting, is that the actual add-on name? I cant seem to locate it.

[Cirque]

Have to agree dins are the easiest. Get TidyPlates and the extra addon for that called Threatplates, it will make your tanking life a lot easier. Furthermore, the addon Clique is great to quickly use Hands and Righteous Defense on your party.

Also, if you're keyboardturning and/or clicking, stop doing that (especially keyboardturning). Keyboardturning makes it harder to not face your back to an enemy and impossible to react fast when someone overaggros and the mob walks through you. Start using strafe if you aren't already, this allows fast movement even with a mob on you without ever turning your back to it. Clicking doesn't work on musclememory like pressing, effectively adding 1 more task to your tanking tasks.

Lastly, if you have issues keeping threat, marking is great. I bound Skull to shift-scrollup and Cross to shift-scrolldown. That way I can quickly mark what I want people to kill first and I'll unleash all my initial threat on skull.

Good luck!

[Andahla]

I am genuinely curious, do you find healing to have the same problems?

No I'm fine with healing.

[Logonov]

say youre new at the beginning of an instance, why? well for starters youll probably get rid of all the impatient people.
after that ignore anyone who types in all caps and ignore people with remarks that look helpful, but are actually just veiled insults.
talk it up a bit when youre in a city, look for a competitive guild and ask their tanks for advice.
keep righteous fury up and just practice practice practice. Hammer of righteousness(may have confused it with another hammer spell lol) will take care of you.

[Soisoisoi]

Sounds interesting, is that the actual add-on name? I cant seem to locate it.

Updated my reply, sorry. I meant CLC Prot.

[rillak]

Use Righteous Fury.

[Maruka]

just try to maximize dps as a prot paladin(but gear for ctc cap), and use CDs when needed. if you have healed you should know the best times to use CDs and if you are trying your best to do a lot of dps your tps will be far above the real dps

[Amat]

Firstly, unfortunately, pallies are the easiest. Now, I'm going to have to treat this as if you know literally nothing, just for the sake of comprehension, Don't be offended if I over simplify, I just reckon the easiest way to explain is to boil it down to the basics.

Firstly, set yourself up with an addon, or a keybind to apply a skull and cross, some people will still ignore it, and in my experience, some will actively avoid it just , it would seem, to be a dick.

Secondly, get a feel for pulling, if there's a caster in the group, mark one of the melee mobs who is guaranteed to run into you with the skull, then pull the group by avenger's shielding the caster, it silences them, and forces them to come to you too, once they are near you, no problem.

Pugging can stick you in a group with DPS who vastly outgear you, and they can be troublesome, establish a way to easily identify who in your group that isn't you has aggro, then make a mouseover macro for righteous defense, then it's just a matter of hitting your group member with the macrod ability, which is infinitely easier than picking out your target to taunt.

Pulling trash packs will make eager DPS open up aoe pretty early, you have to beat them to it, don't neglect holy wrath, the damage isn't great, but it fits right in between hammer of the righteous and is great snap aggro, just getting them on you is 90% of the battle, once they're there, they will likely stay on you.

Your defensive cooldowns are pretty key, it's not about using them when you're at 30% health and panicking anymore, it's about using them at or shortly after a pull when you expect heavy damage, read the tooltpis, arrange them on your bar in order of effectiveness and how long they take to cool down (generally the better the longer).
Also, Holy wrath, that's only 2 minutes cooldown, use it as often as possible, only save it if you're within a couple of minutes of a boss.

Lastly, do not let the rest of your group pressure you into pulling, if you have to wait 5 or 10 seconds for your shield to cool down, wait for it, it makes your life a great deal easier. If they are that completely impatient, they can leave.

If you have any more specific questions I'll keep an eye on the thread, and I'm sure in the time it's taken me to write this there will have been some other good points.

Edit: Ignore the haters, these are the asshats who are making your life difficult to begin with. Sidenote, queue with friends as often as posssible, they are far more likely to give you the space to get comfortable. you'll be laughing in no time.

[Soisoisoi]

Adding to what Amat said (pretty much summed it up though), since DPS like to be trigger happy you have to be even more so. Sometimes you have to pull the next group of mobs as fast as you can, assuming the Healer is with you and has enough mana. Don't forget to use Inquisition either - you'll end up doing more DPS than the rest of the group usually.

A nice little thing to do which basically ensures mobs will be glued to you no matter what the DPS is like is cast Divine Plea pre-pull, Avenging Wrath & Inquisition as you run in (a macro helps) and then start killing stuff as you would normally. If there are any mobs which would be effected by Holy Wrath's stun effect then I would use that first to make sure your Hammer of the Righteous won't be Dodged or Parried.

[Deleted]

I'd say bears are equally as easy as paladin if you fancied trying a different class but the biggest piece of advice i could give is to level a new character as a tank. There's nothing more overwhelming than switching to a spec you've never played before at 85 and having your hotbars full of skills you know nothing about.

[Romobama]

say youre new at the beginning of an instance, why? well for starters youll probably get rid of all the impatient people.
after that ignore anyone who types in all caps and ignore people with remarks that look helpful, but are actually just veiled insults.

just a note, there is an ignore cap..... I know, cause I've not only did this on my pally tank using your logic, but I've done it on my main as well...

Firstly, unfortunately, pallies are the easiest. Now, I'm going to have to treat this as if you know literally nothing, just for the sake of comprehension, Don't be offended if I over simplify, I just reckon the easiest way to explain is to boil it down to the basics.

Firstly, set yourself up with an addon, or a keybind to apply a skull and cross, some people will still ignore it, and in my experience, some will actively avoid it just , it would seem, to be a dick.

Double the 'firstly' double the fun... :P

my advice (partly as a part-time tank, mainly as a full-time DPS)... mark targets... make sure you also mark cc's (and don't be that fail tank who breaks cc's early by not pulling the adds away, then blame the person who cc'd them. they are trying to make your and the healer's life easier, and if your getting counter productive, it's only gonna cause a wipe and probably get you ignored [or in my case, get you ignored and me pulling half the instance to the group and leaving group ] )

[Harthmut]

Keep chasing your dreams.
One day, you will become the greatest tank there ever was!

[Deleted]

Tankings one of those things you have to just bite the bullet and do, to get any good at. I wish people would simply communicate, it makes things easier when you know your all on the same page. Hence get in a good chatty guild who will help take you through stuff.

[Lepertum]

Make sure you have great keybinds. If you don't have a naga or a similar mouse, I suggest you get one, it will make things 10x easier and increase your fun by the same amount. Once your keybinds feel real comfortable, tanking will start feeling the same. When I tank I feel totally in control for 99% of the time because I know that whatever happens, I can most likely solve it in a few seconds.

[Deleted]

Whenever there's a group of mobs that you're attacking you should be using your HoPo on Inquisition. It increases your AoE damage by quite a bit.

Also, read this. http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t126438-...end_me_my_way/