2-Hander tanks. Why?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
362

Yeah I really am not seeing the argument for 2h tanking in this thread. If you want to do 2h tanking and your healer is OK with it I don’t see a problem but to argue it is more optimal in low level dungeons than 1h/shield isn’t in line with my experience at all. I would think it stands to reason that a 1h/shield warrior, regardless of spec, would be a better tank in terms of both threat generation (shield block/revenge) and mitigation. You’re not there to DPS…you’re there to hold aggro and mitigate damage while 3 other party members fill that role (much better than you could trying to do 2 things at once I’ll add.) If you’re going to tank, you should tank. If you want to LARP as a tank while using a 2her…ask your healer beforehand. Because from personal experience things run much more smoothly when tank warriors focus solely on filling the role they’re there to fill.

It would be like me trying to heal you with shadowform/vampiric embrace.

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363

Maybe you don’t remember this, but Whirlwind Totem is horde only in classic. There are no “melee whirlwind cleave” groups on alliance.

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364

Windfury Totem?

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Yeah, I’m just mentally smearing the two words, the warrior abilty and the shaman totem, sorry.

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366

You keep bringing up the “unreliable in pugs” argument, but if that were true, why would we be seeing all these pugs practically demanding 2-hand “tanks”?

Anecdotally, I’ve farmed SM for hours with pug groups that are formed right at the doors to the dungeon. No healers are leaving all that rapid gold/xp gain when trash packs are imploding 5 at a time.

It seems to me that the premise of this thread is based on what is actually “sub-optimal” these days–namely the traditional, sword and board tank, pull one or two mobs at a time approach.

I’m not doing these runs with a coordinated group of 5 on Discord. I doubt many are. These are random General/LFG/Trade groups we’re talking about running these strats with great success. That is the literal definition of a “pick up group”.

367

You make it sound much more difficult than it is. (I do this on Alliance)
But a Sweeping Strike Whirlwind Crit for 400+ to multiple targets twice. Will generate much more threat than a shield spike. Of course mitigation is important and a Shield will excel at that. (that’s why we have the option)

but…Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

I did a Cathedral run with a warlock who was pre-dotting every monster before I could get them back to the camp and there was no way I could hold threat with a 1h/shield at that time even if I wanted. Instead of cussing him out and kicking him for pulling threat I adjusted my strategy to keep the runs going smoothly.

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368

Are you in battle stance when you do this? What’s the rotation for this kind of tanking? Is it purely for trash pulls or are you running 2h on boss kills, too?

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For trash you 2hand tank in Battle/Berserker, for Sweeping Strikes/Whirlwind on CD respectively. Cleave to dump rage. This lets you put out a tremendous amount of multi-mob threat/pressure and prevents them from running all over the room chasing that multi-dotting Warlock or multi-shot spamming Hunter.

For bosses, you can sit primarily in Defensive stance for higher single target threat and mitigation. The ONLY skills you can’t use while 2hand tanking is Shield Block and Shield Bash (I have a quick macro to shield bash for interrupts that switches me back to 2hand afterwards). You can still use Revenge and Sunder just fine. Sunder isn’t even stance specific. Heroic Strike to dump rage when you don’t need to refresh Sunder and solidify your threat lead.

Basically the only requirement for a good 2-hand tank is an understanding of how to stance dance. For those who are mechanically challenged by this principal, macros solve 99% of your button management issues.

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I didn’t start playing a healer till bc and now as an enhancement shaman I’m learning to heal in instances. It’s pretty easy right now at 31 I imagine it gets more difficult later. I will say as a drood healer in bc I had no problem letting tanks or dps die when they did something they weren’t supposed to. They generally learned pretty quick what they were doing wrong. If there’s a group causing u that much grief time to let them learn from their mistakes whether it’s a tank or dps.

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I personally will pull a single monster, 1-2 Sunder Armor and Pool Rage in Battle stance.
You can switch to Defense and Taunt if under 25 rage (if needed).

The 2nd Pull I will have over 30 rage in Battle Stance. Charge or Pull with my Gun, Pop Sweeping Strikes switch to Berserker Stance, pop Bloodrage if needed to get 25 rage and Whirlwind, Then switch back to Battle or Defensive Stance. Cleave once or twice to finish the Sweeping Strikes Stack. Then switch to Battle Stance and try to pool atleast 30 rage for the next pull. Repeat.
(make sure to line of sight caster monsters to help group them together)

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Thank you for understanding how Warriors work. Windfury is nice, but they aren’t the sole driver of this strategy, and the reason why its seen on the Alliance side as well.

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Trash packs in dungeons are realistically no harder than doing an elite quest in the wild. You can have the tank DPS through those if the group is feeling it, and its not an issue.

Tanking bosses, especially endgame/higher level bosses, you should always be in defensive stance and using a shield for block mitigation. If you are dying too fast to a boss, and you don’t have a shield, its literally the first and easiest solution.

raid bosses are built to be “3 levels higher” than you at all times, which gives them inate abilites to crit/crush you more than any mob your max level (60 v 60 you don’t ever get crushed). For anything higher level than you, and shield is very important for mitigation, and depending on your healer’s ability, might be required to not have to be constantly waiting for them to drink.

I did deadmines farming last night with one of my old warrior friends who rerolled, and we did 2 warriors, a paladin, a druid and a warlock. everyone DPS’d the trash with 2h, and the tank switched to a shield for the bosses. Healing was light enough we never had to “stop to drink” but once when we way overpulled.

that said, everyone was at least level 19.

Thank you for understanding how Warriors work. Windfury is nice, but they aren’t the sole driver of this strategy, and the reason why its seen on the Alliance side as well.

Yeah, because stance dancing is totally the same as 2h tanking. Everyone knows you lose the ability to switch stances and manage your rage the moment you equip a shield.

Again its never been about a persons ability to hold thread, or do damage, its about healers not being able to keep up the tank, and when they complain about it, people like you coming to tell them its their fault they can’t keep a sub-optimal tank alive.

This entire time you’ve just ignored that entire side of the argument, assuming entirely “if you kill it fast enough you don’t need a shield” but ignoring that they aren’t using a shield, not killing it fast enough, and dying. That is why Op is here. Its like you can’t see the forest through the trees.

374

Yeah I think the “2h cleave trash, 1h/shield on boss” is probably something to try. I can’t imagine trying to do Verdan the Everliving or Mutanus the Devourer having a warrior use a 2her. I need the tank to have high mitigation on that fight.

375

Its the method my friend group uses when we are all on. I play my warrior mostly, but also heal on a druid. If you can keep the people alive through the damage, its worth it. The shield should come out when you cant though, and you shouldn’t be afraid to demand a poorly mitigating tank shield up.

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Like stated before. Its a lower-level dungeon option. I will be switching to protection @ lv.55
but even if I join the group as DPS Arms usually end up tanking.

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I’m a healer, let them do what they want as long as you don’t wipe. The game really isn’t that hard.

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@ OP your a 43 druid.
Maybe you should consider Feral Tanking if healing isn’t for you!

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379

that was my point you may not see it ally side because you dont have shamans
what is this comprehension

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puts on 1h and shield that does 1/3 damage of WW axe

Omg garbage tank cant hold aggro

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Because dps goes ham and i cant hold threat. 2h plus sweeping strikes plus whirlwind means i hold aggro and the mage and rogue dont die. Now you are healing one target instead of 4.

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