Im new to tanking, and pretty much deathly afraid to tank a raid. Scared of swaps and how and when to do them and do them properly. Afraid of getting booted and wasting time or getting raged at and threatened to be kicked
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Start in LFR just to get a sort of a feel for what the boss does. When you get to Normal, ask the other tank for quick advice, when to tank swap, how many stacks until you taunt, where to position the boss, etc. Furthermore, make it clear to your other tank that you want him to main tank. Proceed to watch him closely, do as he says, and follow by example. Which direction he faces the boss, where he puts the boss, etc.
If you tell the other tank that this is your first time tanking the boss, they’ll usually understand and help you out a bit.
Once you have done the fight a few times, you’ll know it like the back of your hand, you’ll gain confidence, and then you can main tank the next time you run the place
And maybe even help out the next new tank.
Another potential tip is doing the raid as a DPS first, if that’s possible, so you know what to expect, as far as group mechanics go.
Watching a video also helps a bit, so you’re not going in blind, but actual experience on the fight is a much better teacher than watching someone else do it.
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Could start by tanking a dungeon.
Since, you know, that’s the step before tanking raids.
Dungeons im fine with, its more i have no clue how to do swaps.
Swapping is kind of a practice thing really, start off in normal, find a buddy who tanks, and have them help explain the swap mechanics, generally you want a focus on the other tank for stacking debuffs, so an example is if 3 stacks of a debuff is all the tanks can take, once the other tank hits 3 stacks, you taunt the boss, as long as your stacks have dropped.
Occasionally a fight appears like aggramar, where your primarily focusing the boss, and you need to taunt during certain mechanics, the taeachalak (yolo butchered spelling) technique, being an example where you need to taunt mid mechanic.
Honestly it’s best to find another more seasoned tank, to sort of talk you through things as they happen, because every fight is different, some you don’t need to worry about much at all, while others can be incredibly demanding for a tank.
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A few things on this:
When you don’t have aggro, don’t use all of your defensive abilities, and especially not the ones that don’t deal damage. I don’t know exactly how my abilities would translate into yours, as a DK, so I can’t give you exacts, but basically try to save your defensive abilities until you have aggro again, as well as make sure you use a big hit directly after you taunt, which would then be followed by some sort of a defensive. The defensive doesn’t have to be a full on CD, but just like whatever Blood DKs use to keep themselves alive consistently.
The reason for the big hit directly after taunting is to secure your aggro. If you hit with one of your weaker attacks after taunting, you risk causing your other tank to take aggro right back off of you.
The reason for the defensive right after the big hit, is to give your healers a chance to adapt to you being the tank that is now taking the damage. They won’t be paying attention to when you taunt, they only care about your healthbar. If you suddenly take 50% of your health, when you hadn’t been being damaged for 20+ seconds, you risk the chance of dying, as you likely won’t have any healers pre-casting their heals on you, no HOTs rolling on you, etc.
On a minor side note: If your defensive ability is part of your DPS rotation, feel free to use it a little while you are not the tank holding aggro. Just make sure that you save yourself some charges, so that when you do take aggro, you’re not basically naked. Though, if it’s an actual CD, like I think Dancing Rune Weapon is, then if you are nervous about surviving, then feel free to sacrifice the DPS, and save it for your own survival when you take aggro.
Tank DPS is important, but tank survival takes priority.
Also, it may go without saying, but if you have the ability to choose how to spend your resources, between damage or survival: When you don’t have aggro, obviously spend it on damage.
Also another thing, I know that I said tank survival is more important, but don’t forget to do DPS too. You must make sure that you pull enough DPS to actually hold aggro over your other tank, when you have aggro. If your DPS is too low, the other tank can just end up accidentally take aggro off of you.
Which brings up another point, if you are pulling too much damage that you take aggro off of your other tank, then you may need to slow down your rotation. I, for example, am notorious for accidentally taking aggro from other tanks just by DPSing during my burst.
In some cases, if aggro is swapped on accident, it can lead to a pretty much guaranteed wipe.
And keep in mind that some tank specs have a small rev up time. They have to pop a few abilities before they can actually start pumping out damage. (This is particularly important at the very start of a fight.) If your other tank is the one starting the pull, and you find yourself accidentally taking aggro from him while he starts up, then feel free to just wait a few seconds to actually engage, and let him secure his aggro. This can also be fixed by YOU being the tank that initiates the fight, if you’re confident enough for the task.
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I’ve made a habit of clearing LFR on a healer before I try to dps or tank it. That way I get to see the fights and learn basic mechanics without just diving right in. Being a healer usually makes it a bit easier to learn what’s going on while giving me some room for error (ie I probably won’t die as much since I can keep myself alive).
I know everyone knocks LFR around here but I’ve seen lots of tanks open with “first time tanking” or something similar. More often than not, someone else who has experience tanking or just knows the encounters will give you a quick run down of when you taunt and such.
Also, Deadly Boss Mods is amazing about telling you when you should taunt and other basic steps for each encounter to help you out. There are also youtube videos you can watch to help you out.
If you do wind up being raged at, just remember that everyone else there had to learn it too. No one automatically knows everything the first time through.
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Here is the first of a great 5 part series on the subject.
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I’m with ya, OP. When it came to tanking for my guild I was fearless. We all learned together. However, with the introduction of LFR and Premade Group Finder, I’ve backed off from tanking. Now I switch to my Unholy spec and keep my mouth shut.
People are savage.
However, I have been thinking of watching YouTube videos and reading guides to get back into it. Most tanks in these premade groups suck so bad.
Watch a couple videos. Work your way up from LFR. Use DBM and just taunt when it screams at you to taunt.
Just curious. If stuff goes haywire and boss get aggro juggle
Will dbm still be on point when to taunt?
You pretty much just make a tank and tank lol. If you are just switching now you should know the mechanics from dpsing or healing.
Yes pick a tank and tank. Because pressing random buttons is how you get good…
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Yes it is that easy. You seem to have a alright amount of experience, you should have zero problem switching to blood and tanking and it’s not like classes are hard to play these days.
Do you tank mythics? It’s the same thing just you have to do a tank swap on most bosses.
Who said im doing blood? I dont care for blood
Finding guilds is hard as most guilds have tanks already (often officers) but is worth it.
I would strongly advise against learning in pugs as not everyone there would be happy to wait for you to learn. They’re there to get kills.
If a guild does need a tank they’ll often be willing to do whatever to teach you (more experienced tanks teach less experienced almost all the time, you get rather close with each other and learn to work well together)
Goes double if they’ve had a dps offspeccing until they found a replacement.
If you’re using DBM or similar, it typically yells at you when you need to taunt.
Dont sign up as tank for this if you want to learn boss mechanics. Learning to tank in LFR is one of the worst things to experience as a new tank.
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Yeah i can tell lol. I taunt boss then other tank just taunts it
Im like ok then ill dps. Def need to sign up for norm
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Tanking raids requires more communication than the other roles.
As most boss have swap mechanics which you and your other tank need to be 100% clear on, or you’re gonna die pretty quickly.