Comments | wow_ladies: How do start tank?

cloverwhite in wow_ladies

How do start tank?

Aug 10, 2011 04:22

Well I finally gave in and rolled a Worgen warrior on my home/Horde server (WrA), heirlooms are just too tempting. Thing is, I already have a high level warrior, but he's Fury/Arms and I'm far too afraid to learn warrior tanking at 85. So instead, I want to start out tanking with my baby Worgen ( Read more... )

general: advice/advise, warrior: protection

Comments 15

kizzie August 10 2011, 08:25:50 UTC

In a few levels you get a prot talent that lets you charge in any stance, so I waited for that. I just try and do as much 'dps' on as many things as I can and seem to keep aggro - though I am just 45 on my warrior!

tommdroid August 10 2011, 08:31:20 UTC

I find tanking in low level instances quite unlike the endgame tanking. This because the DPS are plain crazy.

They run ahead, they pull, they roar and they somehow survive, the lateer probably due to heirlooms.

So when I low level tank I see but one mission ->keep the healer safe. sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a group who actually run by the book but these are the exceptions. Warr tanks would need one additional stance -> Pragmatic stance. ^^

cloverwhite August 10 2011, 15:51:54 UTC

That's good advice. I've learned to be the hardass healer that just keeps the tank (and good dps) up for the others are butts, but I have such a hard time learning just to protect the healer if the dps are asses as a tank. I know I'm heading into some rough groups, hopefully a lot will not be so awful.

midnightsteel August 10 2011, 12:16:29 UTC

Seconding what tommdroid said about DPS being irritating buggers in lowbie instances. As for charge, that's really down to personal preference. It can be very useful when you really need to overtake that troglodyte of a rogue who desperately wants to do ALL THE PULLS himself, but if you find yourself panicking a little at having to change stance, charge, change stance, regain rage and start your rotation it's prolly not going to help you much. Rage can be quite problematic for baby warriors, so it's often the case that you can't afford to lose it all by stance swapping. Thinking of which, learning to pool rage toward the ends of fights so as to have plenty for the start of the next is important and actually remains a handy skill as you level up - stance dancing becomes redundant when you pick up warbringer.

cloverwhite August 10 2011, 16:06:34 UTC

WTB Warbringer at level ten. Anyways, thank you for the the advice. I didn't think about pooling rage between pulls. :3 I'm pretty used to being arms where I worry so little about rage.

manicmarsupial August 10 2011, 13:52:44 UTC

I wouldn't say stance dancing would be worth it. You get warbringer at 29 (or there abouts). As far as I can remember it only seemed to encourage the dps to start dpsing sooner, while I was still changing back to prot stance and then trying to get some rage.

As for your rotation at that level. You're what 15-16? I wouldn't start with rend. I know you're trying to get Blood and Thunder going but it's a very weak first attack. You've got maybe one second before the dps open up on your first target. Start with shield slam. If it's a group. Thunderclap and then shield slam your priority target, then try applying rend (the mob may die before this though). Once you get sunder armor (18) start tabbing through your targets and applying it to generate aoe aggro. Thunderclap and shield slam again as able.
That'll take you up to 20 where you get Battle Shout and Heroic Throw. Things should get easier from then on.

rowanf August 10 2011, 15:21:49 UTC

This. Heroic throw at 20 and Warbringer at 29 (instead of 63-4 in the old days!) are the things that will make like much easier. Welcome to the ranks of warriors.

Some of the info is pretty old now, but I still love Achtung Panzercow http://panzercow.wordpress.com/tag/guides/

cloverwhite August 10 2011, 16:22:07 UTC

Ooo, thanks for the link! :D

cloverwhite August 10 2011, 16:20:21 UTC

Thanks for the heads up on rend. With low level dps, whatever gets aggro faster is better I suppose. :I

hooves August 10 2011, 13:52:59 UTC

:O Hi lowbie worgen warrior! I have a lowbie worgen tank too-- she's just level 18. I have lowbie healers if you wanted one to go along with you the first few times. :3

ANYWAY

Basically, stance-dancing isn't worth it. Ever. At 29 you can get Warbringer (and pick it up ASAP, I'm jumping down the tree to get it because it's THAT good), so you can charge in Defensive Stance and in combat.

Things will get easier after that. Until then just...yeah, protect the healer. Chances are you'll be fighting DPS for mob attention anyway. :/ Unless you get lucky and/or are running with guildies.

cloverwhite August 10 2011, 16:05:04 UTC

:Ia Maybe, maybe. I still need to get up to 15, I only made her last night... late, late... last night.

I'm actually pretty relieved to hear that stance dancing is not work it, because I really really hate stance dancing. Wurr my rage go?

hooves August 10 2011, 18:35:18 UTC

Yeah, I thought to myself...no way would it be worth it to stance-dance. Though the love of Charge makes it hard to endure until 29! :P

And haha, just let me know if you do want a bit of a pocket healer, I have several at various levels. :) I'm goofing off on a baby tank right now (Myra), but if you see me on feel free to shout at me. :)