Hey longtime prot warrior here. Is tbc really that bad for tanks as these forums make it seem? I enjoy raiding with a guild then doing 5mans with pugs to help others out regardless if I need anything. So is it worth it till we get an update on classic plus?
if you like impatient dps that pull for you and tell you to grow up when you tell them to stop, it’s so worth it.
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I’ll be down to tag along with you for any TBC adventures!! 
I’m stuck between I want to play but I don’t have people to play with.
You can add me as PopCheese#11260
I’m playing as a Dwarf on Dreamscythe!
Prot warrior is the red headed step-child of TBC, especially in postnerf raid content with pre-nerf heroics. The value of what warriors bring for Anniversary is basically non-existent beyond “we need a tank and can’t find anyone else” as Druid and Paladin are highly preferred with a DPS warrior more flexible at covering the third slot whenever necessary. Point being if you want to be a prot warrior in TBC you’re in for a bad time, but if you’re ok with druid or paladin it’ll be fine.
Leveling you will be fine on for being a tank, but once you hit 70 getting into a guild can be tough as the tanks are likely covered for established raiding guilds. If you can find a way in though you’re golden. I have no idea how good or bad the pug scene is these days because I don’t pug anything anymore, but even when this forum was crying about how bad it was I pugged all my 5 man heroics for attunements and badges and really only had one or two completely scuffed groups that didn’t finish a dungeon. It’s probably worse now, but I never found it to be unplayable; it feels like the forum’s expectations was that if you can’t blast through a dungeon effortlessly and if you wipe even once then it’s a bad group.
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I wouldn’t pick prot warrior. Guilds are absolutely full on tanks. Pugs are also. When a pug does want a tank, they want a geared bear/paladin, often with resist gear sets.
Pick a spec that is in demand. If you’ve never healed before, time to start now. But don’t pick a holy paladin, they are the least sought after healer. Resto druid is better, but still not nearly as popular as shaman or priest.
If you absolutely must roll a non-healer, pick a boomkin, a shadow, any shaman. In that order of priority.
Ty for the heads up. After playing a prot warrior for all of sod I don’t wanna have to be fighting with people for threat so time to roll a paladin tank
Keep in mind that 99% of dps players are idiots and no matter how many times they run instances, they’re too stupid to remember basic mechanics.
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I wouldn’t roll a tank, period. First of all, you won’t be able to find raid spots. Guilds, even objectively weak ones, only take geared tanks with resist sets. Pugs also.
Secondly, I assume you have ever only played tank. Time to try something new then. What’s the fun of playing one role for years?
Great time to be a tank. Always almost instant dungeon groups, especially if you have a healer friend running with you. I know some people charge or HR some items for dungeons but even without it you will always be needed.
(Also the limited availability of tanks gives you the privilege of kicking out any dps that are pulling before you if they don’t listen.)
- Running ahead and aggroing.
- Pulling for you when not asked.
- Giving you any sort of lip.
- Not knowing basic threat mechanics.
- Not knowing basic mechanics… period.
Sooo many reasons to kick dps idiots out.
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dps is boring to me. trust me ive tried. As a tank player for 19years in wow its just my bread and butter. its the only thing i find enjoyable in these games. Dps has been ruined because of everyone being obsessed with have perfect parses. As a tank its more of a “what do i want to run today” vibe. As for getting into a guild, im not concerned because come bt/hyjal phase players will be feeling hte burnout and its easier to get into some alt runs then move your way up. i already found a guild with a few raid teams so you never know.
Prot Warrior is great, and if you are a long time Prot Warrior enjoyer (me too!) you will find a way to make it work.
The number one issue for Prot Warriors is gear itemization was made for 2007. Back then we stacked Stamina, Armor, Block Value and Defense to the moon. Prot Warriors are the tankiest tanks by a country mile when you gear this way, but you trade threat/DPS and requires the raid to let the MT get stable before they pump. It was perfect in 2007 for progression raiding doing unknown bosses on a much higher difficulty than TBCCA is.
Between the DPS being parse brained and the very easy raids that removed the need for that Prot Warrior tank niche it ironically makes them the worst of the three options. Not by much at all, but you know how it is with WoW players.
So in TBCCA you have to gear straight threat and play a much riskier version of Prot Warrior to overcome this which means stacking Hit, Expertise, and Crit in addition to Dual Wielding anytime you can get away with it.
Paladin is on the best version of Paladin that TBC had, and so is Druid. In my opinion a Paladin is more difficult/work to gear if you want to be the chad Paladin tank. Druid is very easy to play and gear and very effective.
As for the PuG scene its the same old advice. Find a guild, add people from LFG who were decent to group with to friends, before long you won’t need to PuG.
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Tanking is definitely in demand but it can feel like supervising toddlers at time if you get a bad group.
Key is if a dps has no concept of what threat is and only wants to push numbers it’s their fault they died and not yours.
Really hard to be the #1 uber leet mlg pro dps when you die within 10sec of a fight due to overthreat.
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But, but, how can they be supreme “pumpers” otherwise?! HOW WILL THE WORLD KNOW?!
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FIXED!!! /10 char
Only in 5-mans. You’re never getting a raid spot as a tank unless you’re geared.
Pugs I agree, in a guild I disagree.
Getting ready to start raid tanking in tbc with my guildies now that I’m crit/crush cap’d and have what I need from heroics/rep items.
Tanks can still get spots, just got to be patient.
I see dozens of guild adverts in chat every day, all from different guilds. Never seen even a single one looking for a tank. The reason is simple: a guild cannot begin raiding without a full set of tanks, and if one of them quits, the guild never searches for one because trialing an unknown, potentially unstable person wastes a lot of time. Instead, they immediately have one of their most most stable (showing up for every raid) DPS reroll using his/her existing offspec gear set. There’s never a shortage of DPS who want to tank within any guild and never a shortage of offspec tank gear going to a select few DPS for months on end so that they can reroll and instantly have MT-worthy gear.
But that just the thing. Most people who main dps want to dps not tank. It’s the same reason that even with 2 specs there is a massive tank shortage still as most people actively avoid tanking. If you got someone who wants to tank and is geared to tank and you got available spots a guild lead would be foolish to instead force one of their routine dps to cover down and play tank for a different team. And if I was that dps I’d feel jaded that I’m being asked to play for a different team in a different spec then the spec im use to, especially when there are other members in the guild who want to tank, that are crit/crush immune and know the fights.
The conversation does change if we are talking world first, current content, etc. but absolutely not for Kara, Mag, GL.