Lol mic drop
I was in a Cath group with 2 2h warriors, a mage and a rogue. The warriors were taking a lot more damage each than a single tank would usually take. I had to drink after every pull because I would go OOM every pull because I had to cast my max rank heal constantly throughout a pull.
It’s not a me problem. It’s a they would drop dead and be dead if I did not and there’s nothing else I could have done differently to be more efficient. Had a couple deaths. They should have kited more, especially if I ran out of mana.
I prefer spell cleave groups over that kind of a mess. 3 mages and a warlock are less annoying to deal with than 2h warriors. It wasn’t really an ideal group for them to be doing that though.
Also, 2h does not = more rage and more threat. Especially not if they finally fixed battle shout threat, which I’ve started to see some random people mention they have. 2h warriors in lower level dungeons is not about rage and threat, it’s about being able to kill things so fast that you can get away with not having a normal tank.
Also, all the delusional trolls talking about having to post from a classic character to demonstrate they have an understanding of classic mechanics can take a seat. Especially if you took the time to write a guide and don’t even know how battle shout threat worked in vanilla and didn’t even mention the ability once in your precious guide.
edit: also I’d say at least half or more of every warrior tank I had leveling up to SM used a 2h and it’s really not an issue since the damage is mostly trivial up to that point, but 2h warriors definitely take a lot more damage in SM cath when you’re pulling multiple groups.
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Mained a Warrior since before this game officially released. I preferred tanking in Vanilla, mainly because of how threat/aggro used to work. My using a 2h while “tanking” mid range dungeons was a result of optimal play and not a selfish desire to push DPS. Frankly, I don’t really care what false perception people have concocted about what warriors did then or now, because I know 100% I am right on this subject.
Theorycrafting resources might have been far rarer back then, but they were still there, and they were no less correct about the supremacy of sweeping strikes with a hard hitting 2h in SM.
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If battle shout is fixed now as I’ve seen some indicate, that would be the new highest AoE threat ability.
IE: based on these numbers: https://classic.wowhead.com/guides/threat-overview-classic-wow#threat-modifier-abilities-and-values-warrior
a rank 4 battle shout at level 32+ would do 26 threat per friendly target buffed. If you buff 5 people at once you’d do 26x5= 130 threat on every single mob aggroed for 10 rage. (169 in def stance I think?)
At level 42 the next rank of BS would do 39x friendly targets.
At max rank it goes up to 70 threat per friendly target.
I’m not 100% sure battle shout has been fixed since it was bugged, but they mentioned they were going to restore it to its 1.12 functionality in the same thread about demo shout being nerfed and I’ve seen some warriors claim it is now fixed.
edit: and in case anyone isn’t familiar with battle shout threat mechanics from 1.12, it also counts pets as well, so you can have even more than 5x threat. You can also see people using this in actual vanilla on fights like Nef to keep threat on all of the adds. It wasn’t nerfed until 2.0.1, you can see it in the patch notes. The only reason warriors weren’t doing this up until now is because it was bugged in classic and not working as it was supposed to.
The big issue with sword and board tanking exclusively, is aoe threat. You may be able to snap aggro with demo and thunderclap, but your actual threat within the first 2 or 3 globals will be abysmal. Why? Because your damage with those abilities is abysmal. Aoe tanking is a lot more about damage than it is mitigation because of how threat modifiers worked in Vanilla. At level 40 I would pull with nearly full rage and 2-hander, queue both cleave and sweeping strikes, first global is 4 big hits spread to at least 2 mobs, Second global MS skull target for another sweeping charge, then have 25-30 rage left for a WW. In 3 globals my DPS would be over 1k on a 3+ mob pull. From this point either go defensive or stay 2-handed if you have outleveled and outgeared the mobs. I was averaging 140-160 DPS when everyone else was doing 80-120, depending on their class, gear, and skill. If I was among the highest level DPS in the group, everyone could go ham on everything immediately with no repercussions. Think about how much more quickly stuff is dying in this scenario over “let’s wait for the tank to build threat, single target skull first.” Think of how much more efficient in every way that is.
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You don’t really need a tank for sub-60 stuff tbh if you have a healer. I “tanked” ZF as an enhance (2H) shaman. No talents in anything defensive other than parry (1 talent point for ~5% chance to not take physical damage is strong imo).
looks like a twohander to me
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8 damage off of 200 stop the presses. Oh, that is IF you block.
But also remember, the warrior is doing more damage so the mobs are dying faster and the healer isn’t having to heal for as long . . .
The reason why people specifically say lower level dungeons is because the mobs in these dungeons don’t hit very hard. Truthfully, as long as they could hold aggro, you could probably have a mage, warlock or priest tank in these dungeons. Would it be ideal? No, but having healed these dungeons it doesn’t cost as much mana to keep people alive as you’re suggesting.
If you’re going oom after every pull it isn’t just that your tank isn’t using a shield, you as a healer is also probably using more of your classes inefficient heals, not down ranking, and/or over-healing like mad.
A healer drinking doesn’t mean that the group needs to stop. It just means the group needs to slow down. You can absolutely tank just one or two mobs while the healer is drinking and regenning mana. You don’t need to be topped off at 100% health every second.
We’re talking about instances like Deadmines. You’re not going to get crushed, unbalancing striked, parried, crushed combo’d. This is VC, not AQ40l.
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You must be new to vanilla WoW… 
Healers have to do that regardless…you must be new to vanilla LOL
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Also a simple math, the more dmg the grp does the faster mobs die = less healer Mana needed. Not that I agree with the statement but raiding guilds will give loot prior to DPS for this reason.
you do you. i’ll do me. if you don’t like it. effu.
Or if you knew anything about the game you would know that rage in 1.12 got nerfed. It’s nearly impossible to generate enough rage because you arent taking enough damage to even use skills. This complaint you have is solved once you make a tank and try to sword and board at low levels it is nearly impossible. When you 2h tank your threat goes up exponentially and who cares if you have to drink every pull, you are playing classic, this is how it was back in the day. I have a paladin in the 30’s and I had a tank 2h tank SM and I healed it as Ret needing to drink every 2-3 pulls. It sounds like you need to learn how to efficiently heal and use lesser ranked heels to save mana.
Sounds like a crappy healer? I am guessing you went to watch twitch then have to pay attention.
2h tanking is very viable pre SM Arm. once you hit SM Arm is gets a little less viable depending on your group make up but can still be done.
2h tanking allows for more threat and better aggro control. but yes you take slightly more damage.
Post on your main please. How do we even know you have played classic?
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and get Ravager…
2h WW Axe is more than enough to 2h tank Arms. just depends on the rest of the group and if the hunters are going to blow their wad the second you pull a mob.
I have had few issues with 2handed tanks. Provided they’re trying to keep threat on them, I can deal with one that takes a bit more damage.
The only issues that have sprouted from this composition are the exact same issues that will inevitably come even if the tank had a shield: DPS not respecting aggro, attacking the polymorphed/rooted mob, etc.
Stop blaming tanks for everything.