To all the DPS “tanks” who can’t hold aggro with a shield, I have a secret for you but be sure not to tell anyone ok? I don’t want this getting out too far.
It’s called…the tab key. It’s this key on your keyboard, and it’s called tab. Use it sometimes.
Oh, damn. I thought you were just the boogeyman for this healer.
Have some consideration for your group, all of it.
How’re you losing threat unless the dps is attacking different targets or opening with hard aoe? Which you aren’t going to hold clean in general.
Edit: wtf deathwish… man you’re trolling
Yeah I’m spoiled sometimes on 2x rogues that will stun lock, blind, ect that i just let explode a dangerous caster.
Also if you are in a dungeon with a mage you can pull 20 things or 3 things they go oom almost every pull, if you’re waiting for the mage to drink might as well make the healer use more mana and drink and kill stuff quicker.
Sounds like a good secret for a beginner newbie tank.
Professional tanks use mouseover sunder macro & mouseover taunt macro So they can remain on the skull 
so the Single target dps don’t tank mob after you stupidly tab to a new target .
Also use threat plates . It’s like trainer wheels for kids .
Here you go:
#showtooltip Sunder Armor
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Sunder Armor
/startattack
and for shield block
#showtooltip Shield Block
/cast [nostance:2] Defensive Stance
/equipslot [noworn:shield] 16 INSERT_1h_NAME
/eq [noworn:shield] INSERT_SHIELD_NAME
/cast Shield Block
/startattack
And for shield bash / pummel one one key
#showtooltip
/cast [nostance:3,worn:shield] Shield Bash
/cast [noworn:shield,nostance:3]Berserker Stance
/cast [stance:3] Pummel
/startattack
And this macro I made no one likes but it works well when keybind to Q key . Dismount charge . and if you get too close to mob it will hamstring them instead .
( to intercept you need to go into berserker stance and be incombat else it will switch to battle stance and charge )
#showtooltip
/dismount
/cast [nocombat,nostance:1] Battle Stance
/cast [combat,stance:3] Intercept
/cast [stance:2] Battle Stance
/cast Charge
/cast Hamstring
/startattack
It just depends on the dungeon. You don’t even need a tank for most dungeons until probably maraudon i’d say. In ZF i tanked some bosses, and single NPCs on my priest (I was healing) because I had aggro (mind blast and smite spam) and they don’t hit so hard, nobody cared because it dies before i even come close to running out of mana or dying. The problem is when you have more than one , or vastly more than one which is where shield really makes a huge difference due to not only the mitigation but the block factor also.
It’s all really just a mana issue. I’d rather things die faster, but in harder dungeons if i’m OOM almost every boss fight then i’d rather the tank have more mitigation on to prevent mana loss. Heal throughput is never an issue, only mana is issue, or of course getting 1 shot or globaled if it’s a bad pull or something.
Clearly i can use death Wish because If I put on shield and add 2k armor and then losing 20% armor isn’t going to be much vs no shield. Also I have shield wall if things get dicey.
Maybe I need to make video guides or something.
Edit: shadow priests are trash healers
The guy who said if a group doesn’t roll wonderfully because you can’t 2h tank should disband, probably shouldn’t make guides.
I say:
you think :
Maybe I should have been more blunt.
If the tank cant tank because maybe hes wearing leather gear or really badly geared and the group is wiping because he can’t tank . Would you stick around or keep wiping and till you need to repair broken gear?
Edit: that reminds me of this time we had a warrior who had not done the defensive stance quest . To be fair he was obviously new to the game .
Just remember not everyone is a professional nerd.
Me:
Oreo, some people trying to use 2h with impale build through whole dungeons and not caring what’s happening to their health. Not knowing when to switch from easy vs hard packs.
That or dps warriors just “tanking” while leveling up.
You:
If they don’t die then who cares. The run will be slower because healer will be using pots more due to having to heal more.
If the tank keeps dying because healer cannot keep them alive due to excessive damage then time to disband and find a new group.
I wonder where i got the idea that you think a healer not being able to keep you up with a 2h running being worth disbanding came from.
Now you are trolling
Okay, you are using your 2h tanking, do you A) swap to sword and board or B) leave group when the healer isn’t keeping you up consistently.
If your answer is A, we’re reading into each other’s comments and not the substance and aren’t in disagreement. If it’s B, well then, no I’m not trolling.
If Im dps or healer and my gear is red because tank refuses or doesn’t even have 1h skill leveled up ( might not even have a shield ) then you are going to go repair and come back ? Good luck with that .
Fun facts . Deathwish lasts 30 seconds . Rattlegore best victory 0:27 seconds.
Now i have no idea what you are on about.
Wrong. No shield = no block
Shield block is responsible most of your damage mitigation against dungeon trash. See my video
This video shows a prot warrior using their talents to then 2h, to prove whatever point you are trying you would need to switch specs, since the dps speed of killing a mob is a type of mitigation in a way.
If you fight for 10s vs 30s but take 15dps vs 7 dps in damage it’s a different story.
Additionally DW fury/prot also has some self heals, which is effective health gains to offset mitigation losses.
You need a more thorough deep dive.
Also I’m specifically saying you SHOULD use a shield when you need to for mitigation, on any of those specs
yeah hes right about shield block block being amazing at mitigation .
However your shield block doesnt work when you lose threat lol.
The entire point of 2h tanking or dual wield tanking is that it can hold threat better than shield spec can . This is a known fact . But you also need to have decent gear and also know when to put shield on to help healer out .
For example , boss enrages , stuns tank … drops threat and goes on rampage towards dps . Tank taunts off dps after stun . Healer now wants to top up the dps who almost died but boss is enraged so the tank is now going to take big damage .
At this point the tank can put on shield and block giving the healer more time .
Everytime someone makes a post about the inferiority of 2h tanking people bring out the same tired argument: damage is all that matters. No, no it’s not.
Every person that champions the 2h tank seems to be talking about a mythical beast known as “The Optimal 2h Tank”, which sadly is a rarity in many (most?) people’s experience. Someone with at least a level appropriate weapon, level appropriate gear, knowledge and lack of ego to use proper CC (when needed) can function as a tank.
However, far too often the 2h “tank” has a sword five levels too low, is wearing leather chest for “the deepz”, doesn’t sheep/sap/use LOS and pulls multiple groups, and doesn’t know that cleave only hits two mobs (so the other two mobs whacking him/her upside the head from behind run to the healer after the first heal).
Honestly, even a 2h tank that knows what they are doing and wearing proper gear does take noticably more damage that 1h + shield especially starting around Gnomer (so it seems), groups don’t die much faster without decent AoE dps, and any time saved is barely makes up for the increase in time spent drinking etc.
So just because you had a good experience with a good 2h tank doesn’t mean people who had crappy experiences are wrong or whiners; it means healers have to work harder because someone else doesn’t want to do their job “properly”.
TLDR: why didn’t you read? I wasted a lot of time at work writing this.
way TLDR: sometimes 2h tank works; usually it is a pain in the butt for healers and can we not start any more threads about this please?
I think this reinforces my theory that people see what they want to see. You list all these potential pitfalls with your hypothetical 2h tank, and your post implies that if they simply equipped a shield and 1h sword this flawed player would somehow not make horrible decisions that are equivalent to those you listed for the his 2h setup.
The healer has to work even harder if the tank can’t hold threat .
If the healer only has to heal one person doesn’t that make their job easier ?
20% more damage taken when in berserker stance vs defense for a gain of 3% crit . Yuck . 2h tank should almost always be in defense stance .