Enough with the 2H Tanking!

Y’know, I tanked back in vanilla. Most 2H tankers were over leveled and overgeared for the instance. If you were doing something that mattered you were sword and board, although fury did make for a good off tank.

We also used sheep sap or charm every chance we got. I dunno, maybe I’m just slow and old, but I think if people get out of the retail form of tanking we’ll all be a lot better off. Just say’n…

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I don’t need to as I played it plenty when it was current. Just because you can do something like that, doesn’t mean it’s always the correct way or time to do it.

the 30-40 range is where this style is best used, but you’ve got people trying it at the lowest of levels before the armor really picks up and it’s causing annoying outcomes for inexperienced healers or simply under geared ones. Then towards the upper end where mobs completely melt some idiot trying to 2 hand tank 60 mobs in a pack.

Just because a warrior runs in with a two hander, doesn’t always mean they will end the fight faster. It all comes down to group size and the things they do. A snap kicked 2hand warrior surrounded by 6-7 mobs is in an awful spot vs the one with an additional 8-10% reduction being soaked into each swing from those 6-7 mobs.

I get it, you’ve probably been playing on illegal servers for years and somehow think the styles they swore by work the same way as they do on an actual authentic server. Most of those illegal servers had the wrong values in just about everything. So just because people did research on non authentic servers, doesn’t mean it will work out the same here.

Right back at you champ.

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I switch stances and weapons according to the situation Im in. If the healer is bothered by it he can go f himself. I’ll find another group in 30sec. You scrubs will be begging for a tank for 30min.

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This all stems from the obsession with damage meters.

Druid tanks are my favorite because this is never a issue.

This should be the ultimate goal here.

If you’ve got a group of casters stacked up, by all means toss in a 2 hander and go nuts. If you’ve got high melee dmg mobs with the ability to stun, toss in a 1h and shield to mitigate the damage you’ll take while shutdown.

A tank that simply uses a 2hander because some private server guide told them to and isn’t willing to adapt to situations isn’t much of a tank.

It’s interesting that you’re making all of these assumptions. Just to clarify this point, I didn’t play on private servers. I’ve played WoW on and off since Beta, with my first max-level character being in late BC (I didn’t find WoW compelling the first few times I played it).

OK, having said that, I’m quite curious just what it is you think my point is.

If you have criticisms of anything in my Tanking Guide, I’d love for you to express them.

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Oh cool. We’re just making stuff up now. Neat.

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Sounds like having a shield is one of those things

I’m at level 49 atm, and this assertion is largely misguided. There are numerous dungeons that have a wide level range, SFK and Ulda are pretty notable examples off the top of my head. For SFK specifically, there’s virtually zero reason to use a sword and board if you’re the correct level for it (e.g. around 23) early on, since the early mobs are level 20 tops. You’re effectively losing damage, and thus making the run needlessly longer. 99% of leveling dungeons involve people just going ham from the start, so getting threat early is a pretty big deal. There are certain spots where damage is simply too much to reasonably heal through, which is where S&B comes into play. A good player knows when to use a 2H or S&B.

Lots of us do use shields when needed, especially at higher levels. Dps not waiting is apart of the problem. I can 2h tank and hold better aggro than with a 1h. Warriors in these leveling dungs are solid if they can just hold aggro and keep mobs grouped. Their aoe threat isn’t great and not many people are leveling prot bc it’s painfully slow when questing. Also there are PLENTY of priest and pallys who slap on int gear and call themselves healers, even tho they are dps spec. Stop coming at tanks like they are slowing the group down when most dps don’t wait and many healers are actually dps too.

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Rage generated is based on damage taken and damage done, because the tank will take a little more damage, and do significantly more damage the tank will generate significantly more rage which means it’s significantly easier to hold aggro.

The reason you see 2h tanks take a lot more damage often isn’t even because of the 2h, but because a lot of them will improperly camp berserker stance (10% increased damage taken) instead of defensive stance (10% reduced damage taken) which makes more of a difference than having a shield vs 2h does.

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hilarious cuz me and my group did melee cleave up to lvl 50 without needing a shield. funny

get better?

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Nope.

Two-handers generate more rage. Rage allows the warrior to use more abilities, thus dealing more damage, thus generating more threat.

Taking more damage also means generating more rage, and so on.

I tanked with a 2h all the way to 60.

It’s not hard. Slap on a shield for bosses and you’re good.

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We tanked zg in vanilla with arms warriors. If you have so much as an Arcanite reaper you’re good to tank any normal dungeon. Other raids, mitigation matters. Dungeons, just dps hard before you die. It’s just faster and easier.

And yes, arms warriors 2h tanked in vanilla. This isn’t a new trend in classic.

Its not about damage mitigation, it’s about threat. Loss of shield bash threat makes it harder to hold aggro.

*slam

Time for ret paladin tanks haha

I think you mean Shield Slam, and no, it doesn’t.

At least not when compared to a 2h tank in a dungeon. Maybe in raids where you’re taking enough damage with a shield to be able to have rage to spam Shield Slam on cooldown.

and missing with a slow two hander and being rage starved is better?
What if the mobs disarm? no shield slam. Two handed tanking is dumb.

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Missing with a slow two hander is better than missing with a 1h, yes.

It’s going to take several swings from a 1h to equal a single swing from a 2h.

Taunt?
Battle Shout spam to hold aggro?

Not really.

It came about because we learned how to play better. What’s dumb is thinking that tanking with a shield is necessary or optimal in low level dungeons.

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