A Warriors Guide to Tanking
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The Warriors Role in a Party
A warriors job in the party is to hold the aggro (attention) of the mobs in an instance. You get beat on so that your companions dont .
Common Missconceptions
* You do NOT need any points in the protection tree to be an effective tank. It helps, but is absoloutley unnecessary as the protection tree is very underpowered at the moment.
* You do NOT need to worry about how much damage you do as long as you keep the monsters focused on you.
The Most Commonly Used Opening and Holding Techniques
Opening:
* Battle Stance (You might want to ask for a Heal Over Time(HoT) Spell before you…)
* Charge (Gets you to the mobs faster and generates a bit of rage for…)
* Thunderclap! (Its not so much for the small damage but rather to get a bit more AoE aggro and for its slow effect [Note: Do NOTuse this if a mob has been CCed any way!.)
* Defensive Stance(Do I need to explain this?)
* Demoralizing Shout (More AoE aggro on you and more survivability.)
[NOTE: The order is quite important in opening, but once you have the aggro it is quite flexible.]
Holding:
* Shield Block & Revenge (Shield block to make Revenge pop, and Revenge as your main aggro holding skill.)
* Sunder Armor (Your second best aggro holding skill. Always have it maxed on bosses, on lesser mobs its good to use it every chance you get, rage permitting.)
* Disarm(Whenever applicable, it should be common sense)
* Shield Bash(Against casters of course. Again, use common sense)
* Taunt(Unlike Sunder armor and Revenge, this skill is NOTto be spammed, save it untill its needed.
* Challenging Shout(Along with taunt this skill should not be relied upon to get or hold aggro. Its more of a “Oh no!” skill, and should be used sparingly. Such as after a bad pull where you would combo this with Shield Wall.)
Other Important Tips
* Only AFTER you Thunderclap should your party start attacking, sheeping etc (exception is if a Rogue in the party has improved sap as a talent).
* Have every one in the party attack the SAME monster you charged (It is vital that they attack the same one you are or it will make tanking next to impossible).
* SAVE YOUR TAUNT! (never taunt a mob if its already on you) untill a mob is heading for caster to just pull it off of them (and give it a few whacks to keep it on you).
* Get a good 1 handed weapon and shield then Use Them!
* If you tend to party with casters more, I’d recommend using Shield Block & Revenge combo rather than Sunder Armor; however, if you find you group with more melee classes I’d recommend Sunder Armor over Revenge.
* Save your shield wall skill untill you face a very tough end-instance boss or in the rare case of a bad pull and if you had to use a challenging shout.
* Do NOT let the mages do AoE spells unless the mobs are grey elite or non-elite (in which case you will stop tanking and be added DPS. switch to 2h/DW *Cleave, Whirlwind, Sweeping Strikes…*).
* Do NOT let the rogues do expose armor, if you plan on using Sunder Armor.
* Do NOT use a 2h weapon while with a party (I do soloing tho) unless the mobs are non-elite or grey-elite.
* Do NOT worry about your own DPS.
* Don’t forget shield bash, disarm, shield block (great to get revenge to pop) use these whenever applicable.
* Know the major instances well (patrols, layouts, events, etc). It goes a long way in preventing wipes.
* It is usually a good idea to have a HoT on you before you charge or pull(A HoT does NOT aggro the caster if cast before combat).
* Know when to charge in, and when not to. Sometimes a good bullet or arrow (throwing axe)will do more than a charge could. tank unless they let you
* Communicate to your party what you’re doing. You cant and cooperate. This will make the difference between a good instance run and a half dozen wipes in a pick-up group.
Horde Specific Tip
* If you have a Shaman in your party (you usually will) let them know not to use their shocks a lot when things get difficult(they should only use lvl 1 earth shock to stop casters), as they mess up your aggro holding and are very mana ineffecient.
Tips From Other Warriors
* “Make sure you’re whole group has an assist macro on you” -Chouji
* “[If your taunt is on cool down and a caster is aggroed]switch to battle stance and [use] mocking blow.” -Srv
* “A genius paladin…will give salvation to everyone, and the damage-reduction Blessing of Sanctuary to the warrior…this goes a long way to saving hp (and therefore mana), provided the warrior can still hold aggro.” -Derbarsh
* ” Also note that if you block, dodge, or parry from one mob, you can switch targets and Revenge a completely different mob. This helps quite a bit for tanking more than one mob.” -Kunlun
Optional Protection Tree Talents
Even though I wouldnt personally recommend a protection spec build (not in its current form anyway) there are a couple talent there worth mentioning:
* Last Stand (immeadiatley gives you 30% of your max health for 20 sec). This talent has been known to prevent many a wipe.
* Concussion Blow (instant 5 sec stun and also deals weapon damage) not a bad talent to pick up if you decide to go so deep into the prot tree.
* Improved Revenge (40% change to stun for 3 sec) Stuns are always useful while tanking.
* Improved Shield Block-1 point (gives you an extra block and increases the duration if im not mistaken) a great place to put a single talent.
