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Best way to jump into tanking
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Post by
trademen
I currently have a level 76 arms warrior and I'm interested in tanking at level 80. I see one problem with this.
Because endgame is so populated, heroic groups usually consist of 3 really well geared dps who are just there for some quick badges. How is a fresh 80 tank suppose to keep agrro under these conditions when most of his gear is below level 200? I've healed fresh 80 tanks on my main in heroic pugs, and let me tell you, unless the dps are being VERY kind, the tank can't keep agrro to save his life (or the dps's).
Post by
161859
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Post by
GenXCub
If the dps pull aggro and die, it's their own damn fault. The job of DPS isn't just to put up the highest numbers, it's also to not out-aggro the tank. Most DPS have a way of helping the tank out with this.
Just say you're a new 80 tank. Have rogues Tricks you, hunters MD you, and everyone else watch Omen.
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161859
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127003
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161859
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466571
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Post by
Lorkin
My friend just dinged 80 on his warrior and as interested in tanking. What did I tell him to do? Farm regular ToC as dps. Yes that's right, you can get
4 plate tank pieces
from reg ToC and an epic
tanking trinket
. Along the way you can pickup any straggling dps pieces that no one wants. That includes mail and leather pieces as well.
After those initial pieces, you can move on to some of the easier heroics to gear up. There are some decent
blacksmithing craftable pieces
as well. Get enough emblems and you can fill in the rest of the slots.
Post by
Veggiemite
When I first started tanking I had the same problem as you.
I solved it by marking one target and doing single target threat rotations on it while spaming cleave/thunderclap. If the dps felt kind enough they dps'ed the mark target, not everything else.
Also being humble and mentioning at the start that you aren't in the best gear and that the dps needs to "chill" a bit they usually will.
Post by
ironblades
To learn how to tank, get a warrior to 14 or so and go tank rfc. THhis is actualy amazing way to learn the basics of tanks, all your fancy moves are gone so it requires more skill.
Doing 80 heriocs goes like this, duel spec show up as dps and get every drop that pertains to you. If some else needs a tank spec item, you normaly can buy it off them for 10-20 gold. Once you have gotten your neck, gloves, belt from emblem vendor you should have a good enough tank set to hold agro on probably 3k dps groups. Get a crafted shield and run up as much as possiable. if you can get carried through htoc for gear in there. At this point its try and motivate poeple to run os.
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303745
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432494
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Post by
cosmicguen
Got to agree with the advice here.
To expand on
Once you do that, it all comes down to skill. The more you tank, the better your skill. Since you are already lvl 76, you may want to start practicing now.
When I decided I was going to start tanking my main was 75 and fury specced. I swapped to prot spec, dug out the collection of Kara tanking pieces I'd picked up (no idea why I had them...never tanked before) and finished levelling as prot.
Basically, finishing levelling as prot gave me chance to organise and learn my basic keybindings (where I put my shield slam, thunder clap, concussion blow, etc). Tanking for group quests was good practice for running with a group - having other players to 'watch out for', gave me a feel for the role even if it was nothing like running a dungeon.
At the same time I ran heroics as dps to build my tanking set, got crafted pieces, etc etc. I ran two normal instances (AN and HoL) as a tank before I decided it was pointless, I wasn't learning anything. Threw myself at (the easier) heroics after that.
There was some wiping, and some dodgy pull ideas* from me, but I got there in the end.
* I still do dodgy pulls. Considering a "/p oh ^&*! misclick! MISCLICK!" macro >.>
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