Again, you have little knowledge of how tanking worked in Vanilla, especially at level 20. Your just complaining about that which you know little about. Spec’s matter, I was required to spec with my warrior 31/5/15 in Vanilla for months so that I could off tank in raids, and if I could off tank with a 2h in a raid I could certainly tank with a 2h in a dungeon.
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I’ve been playing since 2006, if you expect me to keep a dual wielding tank in any dungeon above 50 you’re out of your mind and if they show up like that, they wasted their travel time
I will HAPPILY boot a tank that tries that, every time
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so how do you feel about shaman tanks?
They’re better than the dual-wielding types who think they’re tanks if they wear shields. Shaman actually do have talents that make them okay tanks.
my experience healing 2H tanks has been that the reduction in damage mitigation means I use more mana and spend more time healing them, and since I’m healing more, I regen less mana because I have fewer opportunities to go for spirit tap procs.
If there’s a mage in the group, it doesn’t really make that much of a difference to me. The mage is giving me water anyway, and the mage is running out of mana before I am so I’m not stopping the group by drinking.
If the group has no mage in it, I really don’t want to be healing a 2H arms warrior. I’ll wind up drinking between pulls, and without a mage, I’m paying for the waters. In those situations, it’s not actually saving any time, it’s just costing me some coin. But I don’t really say anything cause honestly it’s not worth telling people how to play, I just say thanks for the run and peace out when it’s over.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Thunderclap was Battle stance only, this wouldn’t be an issue. A defensive stanced and spec’d tank does not have the means to hold threat on multiple targets outside of tabbing and sundering everything, which due to the global cooldown takes a considerable amount of time, not to mention the amount of rage that it takes as well. And with the way that DPS has been playing lately and not focusing the tank’s target and insisting on nuking everything else because of everyone who is so used to the way it is in retail and expects to bring that same gameplay experience into Classic…It’s no wonder why there aren’t that many sword and board tanks around.
You simply can’t play the way that the OP expects and actually manage to get the job done without having to taunt on cool down and chase after anything that peels away from you when taunt isn’t available. It’s not the tanks fault that they have to adapt to the people that are obsessed with AOE and cleave damage on everything without bothering to use CC.
OP if you want there to be more sword and board tanks, then the DPS actually need to do their job and focus on the tank’s target and follow the kill order for markings, rather than nuking everything down without so much as a care in the world whether or not they pull aggro.
Tactical Mastery helps. I play the way I expect, and I get the job done. No more excuses from crap tanks.
Given the fact that particular legendary weapon was designed for tanking with the way the proc on it works I’m not surprised there LOL. Hell that thing was best in slot even into TBC for a long time. 
However I am curious as to what offhand weapon was used? 
Five points in shield specialization, Max points in Anticipation for Dodge and Toughness for higher armor bonus on gear, taking the Parry talent in enhancement… Beyond that I’m not entirely sure but I do know that Rockbiter is used along with Earthshock. Both of those particular skills generate a high amount of threat.
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Wouldn’t that fall under J Allen Brack’s statement?
“You think you do, but you don’t”
Mad props to those of you who are playing Classic the way that it should be played regarding dungeon mechanics and proper use of CC… Focusing the tank’s target, properly managing your DPS to threat ratio, and not being a derp and wiping the group.
Bear in mind this is not a statement directed at people who choose to dual wield or 2h tank. This is more directed toward the people who favor Cleave/AoE spam. This isn’t retail, quit trying to play the game like it is. If that is all that you want to do, then this version of the game was not meant for you to begin with.
The only time that this method was ever used to clear dungeons back then was when people vastly outleveled or over-geared them and were specifically helping to gear/level up a lowbie guildie. I’m talking about the vast majority of players here not the 0.5% of the player base who min maxed and theorycrafted and ran sims to test every aspect of the game
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Threat, and damage reduction. if threat was your only job, that lock would be tanking everything.
As a tank, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with cleave or AOE spam. You just have to wait for the tank to get aggro first, which only takes 5 seconds or so. The issue is that some people just cast their aoe as soon as the mobs are standing close enough together to hit them all, regardless of threat.
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If I’m cool with a tank “tanking” with a 2h, feel free. I’m generally not, unless your gear is exceptional. We might clear faster, but its added stress on me, both mana-wise and attention-wise.
And that’s assuming you hold aggro well. If you don’t, it ping-pongs to all DPS, and adds even more stress.
Early dungeons? Sure, they don’t matter much and are very easy. Right around ZF onward, put a damn sword and board on.
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The whole point of 2h tanking is that it holds aggro better.
The specific issue is that people are generally going into dungeons overleveled for them in Classic, which in Classic dungeons means that the mobs for most of the dungeon are 5-6 levels lower than the tank is. These mobs struggle to do much damage to the tank, which means as a tank you are relying on your own damage to build rage. And you build rage from your own damage much faster while using a 2h than you do with a shield and 1h.
Some people know how to hold aggro this way. The problem is too many people saw a youtube vid with ENDGAME gear and think thats how you do it. Learn to tank first before you go pro spec…it is the most viable threat build though. NOT the most mitigation build. So either better threat or better mitigation.
Except that it won’t always. If you’re doing it in defensive stance, sure. If you’re still using high threat abilities, sure.
But the majority of “tanks” that I’ve grouped with that wanted to use it were basically dpsing, in which case it causes the aggro to ping-pong depending on fluctuations in DPS and other threat modifiers.
Which is stressful on the healer.
It requires a tank to be knowledgeable, but most of the time, the “tank” isn’t, and basically just wants to hit sweeping strikes, whirlwind, and see big numbers while expecting the healer to deal with the added headache.
If a tank has a 2 hander equipped they’re going to try generating threat via DPSing route. If they were using high threat abilities they may as well be sword and boarding because the high threat abilities like sunder armor have a set amount of threat generated. There’s no point sundering with a 2 hander equipped.
What they may do is charge in, do a whirlwind attack to generate threat, then macro-swap to sword and board and start sundering but generally whenever someone is equipped with a 2 hander expect whirlwinds and cleaves
It will actually always hold aggro better than sitting there with a shield and taking zero damage will, regardless of the level of knowledge of the tank.
At low levels you might as well sunder because you have nothing else to cast and missing sunder can proc overpower. But generally thunderclap spam is the best rage dump at low levels.
It’s like everyone needs to coordinate with their group. I see this problem with tanks, healers and dps. If tank keeps going without checking healer’s mana the tank is screwing up. If DPS isn’t checking their threat to hold back or use threat reducing abilities they’re failing. If healers aren’t being more active healing people while still managing their mana they’re doing something wrong. It’s all a group effort, not about hey you [insert role] you’re not doing this and that right the way I expect.