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PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
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New to tanking, seeking tips.
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Post by
kikoolol
Hello,
I am a new 72 Warrior that is looking to be a tank for endgame content. I have previously played healer (priest) and DPS (rogue), to uld10/25 content. I decided that for my next reroll I would be a tank. I am enjoying it so far!
I have recently run Nexus. I found that I very rarely lost aggro and that the healer was not stressed. Nevertheless I would like to get some tips. I will try to describe my playing style so you guys may bring corrections.
Here is a screenshot of me and my most damaging abilities - hoping I have a good proportion.
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1329/tankingstuff.jpg
I found that I almost always had 100 rage and I had a lot of difficulty shrugging it. My weapon is speed 1.6, and I was spamming Heroic Strikes every swing, and it still dropped slowly, so this may account for the big HS part.
For trash pulls (multi-mob) I go like this :
-mark
-charge or (lol) shattering throw/charge for LoS...no heroic throw yet!
-TC
-demo
-shield block
-repeat []
For bosses :
-charge
-SS
-TC
-demo
-shield block
-revenge
-weave devastates and heroic strikes, SS if SaB procs
-refresh debuffs as needed
Here is my armory :
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dentarg&n=Truestory
Few questions :
Macros : I currently use none. I thought that a mouseover devastate macro would be a good idea to help me threat better and shrug off extra rage on trash
Spec : I believe it's ok?
Thank you all!
Post by
Kramp
Spec is fine. Standard Deep Wounds.
For Trash pulls, add cleave as a rage dump. With the glyph ( wich I recommend you getting for dungeons and prot aoe farming ), It's a really efficient aoe tanking tools.
For bosses, if you have confidence in your healer and in your gear, you can add Recklesness before pulling and do a Shield Block-Shield Slam-Concusion blow-Revenge that will have every DPS eating your dust.
Post by
kikoolol
Thank you for your comments.
Do you recommend replacing HS on trash pulls with Cleave, or is a balance preferable?
PS : I know I have Glyph of Overpower. It's an holdover from Arms. My server blows and I can't find Glyph of Blocking :(
Would Revenge/Blocking/Cleave be a good glyphing combo? Or should I replace Revenge by something else (like Devastate)?
Post by
Kramp
Block/Revenge is the 2 most used glyph for tanking. The 3rd one depends.
For heroics or prot farming, Cleave
For Single target threat, Vigilance
For Survival, Shield wall
Yep, dont use HS at all on trash.
Post by
Porcell
My only other tip is to not worry about using Demo Shout on trash. You can probably find a better use for the GCD, the damage reduction isn't necessary, and the threat is infinitesimal.
Until you get to level 80 you'll only have two glyph slots. Don't worry about blocking, it's a smallish damage/threat increase for your Shield Slam and at this point in your gearing it's going to be even smaller for you (in my full 2700 Block Value gear, glyph of blocking is like a 60-70 damage increase, which is about a 2% damage bump). Glyph of Devastate will give you a pretty big boost to the threat you get off of Devastate (Around a 20% increase), and Revenge is a good choice as well for free Heroic Strikes. The cleave suggestion is good for multi-mob pulls. I usually queue a cleave every time I Thunderclap, and use Heroic Strike the rest of the time.
Whenever I'm trying to teach a new tank about technique, I talk about basics like LoS pulling (which you already know) and the danger of "over tanking" a target. You will start to get a feel for how much threat you need to put into a mob before you can ignore it. I know a lot of first time tanks put all their attention into the Skull target, at the expense of the other mobs. If your skull target dies with you having 120,000 threat and all of your DPSers with 40,000 threat, then you are "over tanking" that target. That extra ~60,000 threat could be of better use spread around your other targets. It sounds like you are already pretty good about spreading around your threat though.
My normal pull of a three pack would be to Heroic Throw one target, charge a different one and shield slam it, pause a second for the mobs to gather close, Thunderclap and queue a Cleave, then take a step back and Shockwave. Switch off my charged target and Revenge/HS or Devastate/HS that second target, then switch to the third and Shield Slam that one. At this point I have pretty even threat on all of the targets. Thunderclap and queue another cleave, and continue to rotate through the different mobs throwing Shield Slams and Mouseover Devastates while Thunderclapping whenever I can.
Another tip involves floating rage between pulls. If you are in the middle of a pull, everything is starting to die, and you have a good threat lead on all of the targets, then you should start to conserve your rage. Don't keep blowing abilities and burning up your rage; try and hold on to 60-80 rage for the next pull. This allows you to refresh your Shouts after every pull and gives you a nice bit of rage to start the next pack.
At least for me, a big key to my success in running heroics is my floating of rage and chain pulling. A lot of our threat problems disappear when we are the first ones to get to the next pack and pull while the DPS is still running up and getting into position. If you and your party are all standing still in front of a pack of mobs, when you charge in the DPS is going to immediately start lighting them up. If you can get there first and get a charge, SS, TC and Cleave in, that 2 second head start will leave you lightyears ahead on threat. That and it really speeds up a run (just make sure you healer can handle the pace).
Post by
Syntaxis
Mark a mob with skull. Get some Rage and queue Cleave: Charge in, hits 4 mobs right away. Thunderclap immediately and position yourself for Shockwave, use Shockwave and you've built up a ton of threat right off the start.
Put 3 sunders (through Devastate) up on the skull-marked mob first, then tab through the mobs, Cleave each one, Thunderclap whenever you can. Switch to the skull-marked mob to check your threat meters.
Also something I was only recently made aware of, Taunt has a range.. (I know, newbie me!) - use it to pull mobs off your healer or DPS without having to walk toward them, exposing your back to whatever you're tanking.
Glyph of Cleave is worth it's weight in gold for early tanking, especially with PUG where DPS doesn't have a clue.
Additional macro tip: Make a macro that says:
/p To all DPS: Please focus on the {skull} (skull) target at all times. Let me get some aggro before you use your AOE abilities.
Post by
marklartank
I found that I almost always had 100 rage and I had a lot of difficulty shrugging it. My weapon is speed 1.6, and I was spamming Heroic Strikes every swing
you did not spam HS every swing; you had 317 HS and 639 white swings, so only 1 HS per 3 swings. more HS (or cleave) will help you dump that rage.
go ahead and glyph for cleave and use it on trash. i would probably grab sunder as your second glyph until you hit 80.
other than that, you seem to be doing just fine.
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