Koest's Warrior Tanking Guide

[Koest]

So you specced a Protection Warrior, eh? Well, great! *pats you on the back* But now, you need to know HOW to tank, I guess. Because if you didn't, why would you view this guide?

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First off, you probably want a good specc. My warrior's specc is horrible so it won't be used as an example! But, here are a few good specs.

Basic Tanking Build: 5/5/45
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Build for Multiple Mob Tanking: 8/12/41
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft|

Off Tank / DPS Build: 17/3/41
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft|

These are a few common protection builds. I will go in to detail as to what each one is used for at a later time.




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Ok, now that you have you're spec, now you need gear! Here are a few good tanking weapons and shields you should consider when you turn 70:

Grom'tor's Charge - Thottbot: World of Warcraft Grom'Tor's Charge
Inuuro's Blade - Thottbot: World of Warcraft Inuuro's Blade
Crystalline Kopesh - Thottbot: World of Warcraft Crystalline Kopesh

Netherwing Protector's Shield - Thottbot: World of Warcraft Netherwing Protector's Shield




Anyways, the abilities you will be using as a tank for the most part:

Thunder Clap: A simple AOE that slowers the enemy's attack speed, along with generating some threat (good for quickly grabbing AoE pulls for less chaos)

Sunder Armor: One of the first tools for a tank! This ability lowers the opponent's armor for some time and stacks 5 times. Sunder Armor generates a lot of threat while stacking, and less when the ability is fully stacked. When possible in the Protection line, grab Devastate and use it as a complete replacement for Sunder Armor.

Revenge: This ability can be used after you Block, Dodge or Parry an attack. If you constantly keep up Shield Block, you will pretty much always be able to use it and generate more threat! (5 sec CD)

Taunt: A warrior is nothing without his or her trusty Taunt! In higher level raids, however, this ability is useless to many mobs. Taunt forces the target to focus on you for a few seconds, has a 10 second CD (unspeced), and is PERFECT for instantly regrabbing aggro if dps does one too many crits.

Shield Bash: This ability stops the casting of the enemy and makes it so the enemy cannot cast a spell from that school for 6 seconds. Shield Bash is on a 12 sec CD. The ability does not work for many bosses and in many raids, the mob will stop casting, but is Immune to the 6 second spell school silence. Don't use this ability too much, you can count on Rogues etc., most of the time, but for some bosses, such as Shade of Aran, it is VITAL to chip in and interrupt.

Shield Block: Always, always, ALWAYS keep this up as much as possible. It increases block chance by 75%, and for upper geared warriors, totals out your block chance to be 100% or more. Unspeced, it lasts 5 seconds and blocks 1 attack, but specced it can block more and lasts longer! You will most likely also trigger Revenge for additional rage when you use Shield Block.

Challenging Shout: This AOE will cause all nearby enemies to focus on you for 6 seconds. It's basically an AOE Taunt, but on a 10 min cooldown. Use this for boss adds to gather them up if necessary, or if you have lost aggro, your Taunt is on CD still, and you desperately need that mob to put hate on you.

Shield Wall: This ability shares its CD with the 2 other warrior 30-min CDs. It decreases all damage taken in by ranged and melee attacks by 75% for 10 seconds! VERY useful when you have low health on a boss fight or you're paranoid at those last percents and it's the first time you got Gruul down so low.

Shield Slam: On a 6 sec CD, this ability hits the target for damage with your shield, so even if you're disarmed you can use it. It generates a LOT of threat and should be used whenever possible, even if you're in the middle of precious sunder stacking.

Devastate: Basically an advanced Sunder Armor. Same rage, same CD (global), but it hits for a percentage of your weapon damage, and more depending on the amount of sunders on the target. Use this to not only generate sunder threat, but the threat you get from doing damage to your foes! Once you have this, never use Sunder Armor.

Bloodrage: Ah, bloodrage. It takes some of your health, only a couple percent, and gives you 10 rage! And depending on your spec, it gives MORE rage over time. Perfect if you want to put on more abilities for more hate, and you used up your rage.


Ok, now that you have an idea of many of the tanking abilities you should have next to each other in your bindings so you can mash them while tanking, let's actually discuss, the most important part of tanking... TANKING!

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Ok, there are more abilities that a tank will use; I just explained the most common ones! And no, not because I'm lazy; because I don't want to confuse your minds with all this. Wow, I hope I have enough space to type all this up.

TANKING:
Well, first, you preferrably want to be the one who pulls the mob or group of mobs that needs to be pulled. If you aren't the Main Tank, and thus do not get that oppurtunity, you will either want to use BLOODRAGE when the mobs are running towards the MT to generate rage so you can use SHIELD SLAM to get initial aggro, or if possible, use TAUNT for immediate aggro.

Now, once you have aggro, immediately SHIELD BLOCK (doesn't use global CD), REVENGE or SHIELD SLAM (you can use Shield Slam first because it gives more threat, but I suggest Revenge, because once it can be activated, you have only a few seconds before you must block, parry or dodge again, and you can use Shield Slam immediately after Global CD)

At this point, we will get in to a more repetitive phase of tanking. Stack Devastate (Sunder) to as many sunders as possible until Shield Slam pops up for use again. You gain much more threat using a Shield Slam in the middle of sunders rather than gaining a full 5 first.

**Remember to ALWAYS have Shield Block up. After that phase, you may use Revenge, then Shield Slam if possible. If you can use Shield Slam but not Revenge, do it, and wait until the next possible Revenge to do the Revenge -> Shield Slam cycle.**

Once you have a full 5 devastates, it really is not necessary to do it much more, but only occasionally to refresh the sunders. Focus more so on Revenge, Shield Block and Shield Slam. Remember, if you lose aggro, immediately use Taunt; if that doesn't work, try Thunderclap or switch to Battle Stance and use Mocking Blow to get aggro. If the target is immune to Taunt effects, you can Intervene its current target for the threat and to recieve the damage. In most cases, DPS will never have too much more threat than you unless you don't hurry and gain more threat, so Thunderclap can give the necessary threat for you.



Congratulations, by now, you should understand basic tank abilities and how to tank! Now, onward to multi-tanking!

I never liked multi-tanking, but it can be quite easy if you get the hang of it!
When tanking there should always be a specific kill order. If there is not then it is an AOE pull and there is no need to multi tank. Because there is a kill order, you simply need to click on that specific mob and use Thunderclap all the time and Devastate in between Thunderclap cooldowns. Cleave is also a good option if you have lots of rage. If you happen to be tanking 5 or more mobs (lol) then you need to use <TAB> to switch between targets. Usually when tanking 5 mobs they are not particularly difficult to kill so they will die fast. Because of this you can Taunt the first mob, then when Taunt is about gone you can use Concussion Blow. When Concussion Blow is out you can use Taunt again and by then the mob should be dead. Then you can continue to simply Thunderclap and Cleave and tank all 4 remaining mobs at the same time.




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Recommended Warrior Stats:

Ok, this should be near the beginning, but I just added it, and soon as I said, this will be an organized single file as soon as I like this guide enough

Early Heroics (Ramparts, Slave Pens)

-11.5k Health + (I personally always recomment 12.5k + for these things, but you should get on these heroics pretty soon after dinging 70, maybe just get a bit more higher level normal instance gear..)
-490 Defense is always a MUST, but you don't have to be perfect..hey, you could probably do a few heroics with 450 Defense.
-11k+ Armor?, well, around there, probably want to go up in to the 13 thousands, but it's probably ok for these early heroics.

Medium Heroics (Blood Furnace, Underbog)

At this point, have 490 defense. Other than that, you should have some gear from the early heroics, so you will have higher stats, which will help. But really, these are around the same level as the above 2.

Hard Heroics (Auchindoun heroics)

-12k HP is a probably a MUST at this point, 14K Armor, Obviously 490 + Defense.

Heroic Heroics (Tempest Keep, Shadow Laby, Shattered Halls, etc.)

These heroics are around Kara level+ for difficulty. So please look at the below Kara gear tips!


Karazhan (OT)

-11k HP
-12k Armor
-490+ Defense
-Around 35% for combined avoidance.

Karazhan (MT)

-12k HP
-13k Armor
-40% Avoidance


These could be considered Main Tank statistics. I will add more info for more Tier raids later, but now, I really don't have the time... If any of the stats seem a bit high or low, drop me a PM or post it, and I'll be more than happy to consider your suggestion!
This concludes this guide, for now, until I get more time to complete it completely and add a bit more info, and make it more indepth (especially in the Multitank section)! I hope you enjoy it, and please do not post it any where else without permission of it's rightful owner, Koest of MMOwned!



Builds from WoWWiki.com

Credits go to FERAG for helping edit some innacurate information

Feel Free to PM me additions to the guide, and when it's finished, I'll make it a nice big PDF

[Koest]

Seriously? No comments? Don't tell me I spent all this time making this to not even get LEECHED D:

[fatality3]

Awesome guide man! I am currently leveling my warrior (65) and do look forward into tanking. I have no experience in tanking so thanks a lot! +rep

[Aradroth]

I'll +Rep you for the effort. Not a guide I'd use since I'd never be a tank lol but I'm sure it'll help a lot of people.

[Koest]

Hehe thanks .. and good luck Fatality! I hope my guide helped! Speaking of which..Ill add good starting stats for specific raids for OTs and MTs!

[Ferag]

Your guide is not bad, but is quite inaccurate at many points. My reply is to the above quote in each case.

Here's a good macro to use for you:

/castrandom Shield Slam, Devastate

-or-

/castrandom Shield Slam, Revenge (be sure to keep Shield Block up)

-or-

/castsequence Devastate, Devastate, Shield Slam, Devastate, Devastate, Shield Slam ( I think that one works ^_^)

1) Tanking rotation is Devastate (2) -> Shield SLam -> Revenge and repeat. Thunderclap and Demo Shout are switched for Devastate when they need to be refreshed.

5/5/45 (Basic Tanking, most level 70 5-mans and Kara)
8/12/41 (Tanking multiple mobs at once)

17/3/41 (OT Spec, good for decent DPS and OT)
8/5/48 (Spec for those who constantly switch out stances)
5/15/41 (Similar to 17/3/41, but for duelwielding DPS)

2) Your tanking builds are very unspecific. You need to link to a calculator or they could put those 45 points into the wrong spots eh? Try this one : Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft.

-12.5-13k HP
-14.5K++ Armor
-490+ Defense
-Around 15% for each avoidance (Block, Dodge, Parry), give or take a few.

3) Kara starting stats for Offtank unbuffed : 11k hp, 12k armor, 490 defense, 35% avoidance (dodge+parry+miss).
Main Tank: 12k hp, 13k armor, 40% avoidance.

Ok, now that you have your build, which I'll assume is a main tank build, we can talk about actually tanking. I'm also assuming you are using a suitable 1-H Sword (A good beginner sword is the rep bought Innuro's Blade from Shattered Sun Offensive) and a shield (Preferrably the Exalted rep Shattered Sun Offensive shields or 33 Badges bought Azure Shield of Coldarra)

4) Badge shield is worthless. Gromtar's Charge is a good tanking weapon from an easy quest chain.

TANKING:
Well, first, you preferrably want to be the one who pulls the mob or group of mobs that needs to be pulled. If you aren't the Main Tank, and thus do not get that oppurtunity, you will either want to use BLOODRAGE right before the pull to generate rage so you can use SHIELD SLAM to get initial aggro, or if possible, use TAUNT for immediate aggro.

Now, once you have aggro, immediately SHIELD BLOCK (doesn't use global CD), REVENGE or SHIELD SLAM (you can use Shield Slam first because it gives more threat, but I suggest Revenge, because once it can be activated, you have only a few seconds before you must block, parry or dodge again, and you can use Shield Slam immediately after Global CD)

At this point, we will get in to a more repetitive phase of tanking. Stack Devastate (Sunder) to as many sunders as possible until Shield Slam pops up for use again. You gain much more threat using a Shield Slam in the middle of sunders rather than gaining a full 5 first.

5) Save Bloodrage until directly after you pull as it generates threat while the mob is still running at you. Shield slam immediatly and begin your tanking rotation while spamming Shield Block.

Once you have a full 5 devastates, it really is not necessary to do it much more, but only occasionally to refresh the sunders. Focus more so on Revenge, Shield Block and Shield Slam. Remember, if you lose aggro, immediately use Taunt; if that doesn't work, try Thunderclap or Challenging Shout to get aggro. In most cases, DPS will never have too much more threat than you unless you don't hurry and gain more threat, so Thunderclap can give the necessary threat for you.

6) If you lose aggro, do NOT Challenging Shout. That is a waste. Instead, try to Concussion Blow or switch to Battle Stance and Mocking Blow. If they are taunt immune then back off and Intervene the person with aggro so you get hit and generate some rage to pull threat back with.

I never liked multi-tanking, but it can be quite easy if you get the hang of it! Basically, it's Shield Slamming, Taunt, then quickly tabbing to the other mob, Devaste once or twice to prevent healers from aggroing, then put a bit more on the main tank mob, but occasionally sundering or shield slamming your off tank mob. You should also use Cleave when you have extra rage.

Ok to be more indepth:

Step One: Use knowledge from the first part of the guide to get aggro on the main tank mob (Shield Slam, maybe a bit of Devastates)

Then, tab over to the off tank mob and put a couple devastates on to prevent healer aggro.

Now you can full stack on the first mob, get in some Shield Slams and Revenges, then occasionally tabbing over to Shield Slam or Devastate a couple times the off tank mob.

You will probably want to Cleave or Thunderclap for additional aggro if necessary.

7) This is completely wrong. When tanking there should always be a specific kill order. If there is not then it is an AOE pull and there is no need to multi tank. Because there is a kill order, you simply need to click on that specific mob and use Thunderclap all the time and Devastate in between Thunderclap cooldowns. Cleave is also a good option if you have lots of rage. If you happen to be tanking 5 or more mobs (lol) then you need to use <TAB> to switch between targets. Usually when tanking 5 mobs they are not particularly difficult to kill so they will die fast. Because of this you can Taunt the first mob, then when Taunt is about gone you can use Concussion Blow. When Concussion Blow is out you can use Taunt again and by then the mob should be dead. Then you can continue to simply Thunderclap and Cleave and tank all 4 remaining mobs at the same time.

This post is not meant as a flame, but merely to help this poster out to get more accurate information. And yes, I know my post in unorganized.

Also you need to add this link to your guide. It is the best guide ever for a warrior and has everything you will ever need to know. WoW Forums -> Warrior Guide Collection -- Read This Or Die

Sorry again if this insults you.

[Koest]

Ferag, thank you SO much! I made this guide with the HOPE of help to make it complete, and accurate. It was obviously not made as a final thing, because I almost expected people to try to make it more accurate. I'll be sure to add this and credits to you. I probably would have made it made more sense and be more correct if I had more time, but I've been busy today, but it still would've been off :P ... and as I said in the post, I've been busy and will add more info about the builds later, Hopefully I can get this in a more organized state later
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Added links to good quest gotten weps and shields, edited some information.

[Ferag]

It's no problem at all. Good luck getting the rest of the guide up.

[Obama]

I'm going to use this THANKS.

[axxo]

Sweet Im lvling a warrior which i plan to tank with and pew pew so Merci

[flowie]

also leveling a warrior 62. i guess it is a decent guide.

[doodlol]

Great guide! It helped me get tanking skills for my warrior. Well done!

[Orfz]

Excellent guide +rep

[st3f]

good for my warri twink !

[Koest]

Glad you all like it