How is it done? I can’t seem to keep agro on mobs in 5 man groups which causes me much grief cuz i get removed from groups.
I’ve tried various strats…Berserker rage, blood thirst and intercept, than demo, puase a sec and i have enough for whirlwind than another 2seconds and i can thunderclap
despite this mobs peel off me and go to hunter or someone
i’ve tried various ways but the mobs just run from to others
I have a very hard time building rage
once i intercept, demo and WW it takes a bit to be able cleave or do sweeping strikes
i find best luck so far to intercept, ww and thunderclap
is there a sure fire way to hold onto mobs??
if its one or two…i charge, demo, than sunder each mob than return to first mob
i’ve gone arms spec which was recommended but dang i really have a hard time building enough rage i feel i’m always struggling to be able to do next blow
In classic, Prot is the preferred tanking build as it holds threat well although there is a Fury build that some people use but it depends upon selecting some specific higher level talents.
Arms is a dps build. It’s a good dps spec and is the preferred leveling build but can’t come close to the threat produced by prot abilities for tanking.
Prot wants a one hander and a shield. You will shield bash a lot.
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Classic was designed for DPSers to have a much more active role in managing threat, so it might not be on you to improve.
For your part, starting with a whirlwind and a thunderclap can help, but you really don’t want to be in battle or berserker stance longer than it takes to pop those abilities, since those stances have reduced threat as compared to defensive stance (when you use defensive stance, even when you use the same abilities they build significantly more threat). But those two abilities (with however many Demo shouts you managed to squeeze in) really aren’t enough to hold against serious AOE. AOE tanking really wasn’t meant to be standard practice in Classic.
You should generally be able to hold 2-3 elites by tabbing between them and hitting them individually with sunder armor (which has a huge amount of threat). You can spread around a little more threat by putting any extra rage into cleaves, but in Classic most threat is built against one target at a time. If you are dealing with more than 2 or 3 elites, then you should consider CC on one (or more), split pulls, corner pulls, etc. The game just was not designed with AOE tanking in mind.
Your DPSers should doing a few things to avoid pulling aggro:
- Wait to see sunder armor on a target before touching it. Ideally 2 or 3 stacks.
- Sheep/sap one elite at the start of a pull to save it for later.
- Don’t use AOEs against elites. AOEs in classic are meant for those big sloppy packs of normal mobs, not for elites — elites in classic are generally meant to be taken down 1 by 1, focusing on the tanks targets.
- Save AOEs, big damage abilities, and anything marked as “increased threat” for late in a pull. Don’t lead with your most damaging ability.
- Use any threat reducing ability you have whenever it cools down.
- If the tank is not hitting a target (they are stunned, or trying to catch something that got away) then stop DPS.
- Understand that the threshold for pulling aggro is lower for melee range, so what was safe threat at 30 meters pulls aggro if you walk too close. Also, if you pull aggro and you’re standing next to the healer, then you just put the healer in melee range where they also pull aggro easier.
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DPSers manage their own threat.
The last bit is the biggest difference between classic and retail. In classic, it was intended for DPSers to take an active role in avoiding pulling aggro. DPSers were meant to understand tanking and threat mechanics, and to avoid doing stupid things that pull aggro. A good DPSer in classic rides the line where if they did any more damage they would pull aggro, without crossing that line. The game was not designed for tanks to be responsible for holding aggro off a DPSer — The DPSers were meant to learn how to use their threat reduction abilities and how to hold their DPS to a level the tank can hold.
BC and later updates changed the philosophy. Most players just never learned how great works. Seriously, if you look at the threat reduction tools hunters have, it’s not possible for a hunter to ever pull aggro without doing something completely stupid, yet they still do. Players don’t use their threat wipes, and if they see a low damage ability that reduces threat they won’t use it (because it’s low damage), or if they have a high damage ability they will use it even if it is marked as having enhanced threat. So Blizzard caved and changed the model so DPSers can usually do whatever they want.
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man, thanks bro
thats some good stuff
i try my hardest but i generate so little rage all i can muster is demo, battleshout, usually by than i’m in defense stance and try to cast a cleave blow, sometimes i get a thunderclap but getting 20 rage to cast seems alot, its not akways enough
if its 2 mobs its sunder on each, demo n bs
i’ve been removed from so many groups
my gaming exp has been poor and difficult to find groups that play with me
i’ve tried telling them to let me sunder it but the are like a hungry pack of wolves
so i end up running around and cuz i dont have agro the mob not hitting me so i’m not getting much rage either
i went ahead and went prot
found a 1.5s sword
and i’m seeing an improvement but i wish i could still gen more rage
so my goal now is to find a dagger
i feel silly running around with shield n dagger but its seems best way to get more rage, its a constant strugle for me to get rage, i’ve nvr seen my rage go past half bar.
Warriors are probably the most gear dependent class in Classic. You may want to run a dungeon or two as arms/fury just to get a shot at a better weapon, shield, and gear before tanking.
For Rage generation, you can look into Rage potions from Alchemy. Might be more effort than they’re worth to make, I remember they had something to do with the Barrens (think I’d seen the recipe in Ratchet), and it used fangs or claws or something that you could farm in that zone. Check the AH and guild bank at least.
I never played warrior or bear much because I didn’t like the Rage resource, but I also remember them hitting critters for Rage right before combat if they were able to, and that it gets easier when you gain certain talents and can stack more Agility for more crit/dodge/parry (no idea if they’ve kept stat allocation un-simplified like it was in vanilla).
I’m not sure if you have tried a retail warrior, but it would be much easier and possibly more enjoyable given your frustration in Classic.
What kind of *** group removes a level 19 warrior from groups? LOL I’ve had the worst tanks and I just try to help them.
/tm 8 as a macro will mark something with a skull. Put this on a macro hotkey and just press it for what you’re charging at. This should tell DPS not to hit anything else until you’ve secured aggro.
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People don’t understand that Classic is not retail.
Back in Vanilla it could be a problem teaching DPSers how to work with a Warrior tank, and warriors were really the only game in town back then. The core of the problem is that many DPS abilities have a threat multiplier on them, but that never matters soloing so your Fury Warrior makes it to their first few dungeons still think that it’s a good idea to spam Heroic Strike as much as possible. The threat reductions and threat dumps also have no effect soloing, so players just don’t use them, and definitely don’t use them preemptively.
In retail, any DPSer can expect to get carried through most instances, and have no real effect on success or failure until around level 50. Target priority and threat just don’t matter for DPSers in retail, and healers virtually never pull aggro.
So basically, players feel like they should be able to faceroll and not pull aggro, since they can faceroll and not pull aggro in retail.
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