Looking to try tanking out

Community General Discussion
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Good day all. I’ve been playing wow on and off for about 15+ years, and in all that time I’ve only tried tanking out casually.

However I’ve been thinking of giving it a shot earnestly. I decided to go to icy veins, and checked out their tanking guide. It starts off by saying (allow me to paraphrase);

“Tanking isn’t as hard as you think and just because you’re new to it, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it!”

Then it proceeds to go into detail how you need to know every encounter, mob, trash pulls and when they happen, all boss and encounters mechanics, all positional requirements for each boss, positional requirements for every other DPS class in the game, be a leader and know when to call down group buffs, enemy debuffs, extra heals, damage mitigation from healers, and of course never lose aggro, and if they do, gain it back immediately. Oh and also know the fastest route through each dungeon/raid, which mobs to skip, shortcuts etc.

Needless to say, the claim that tanking isn’t as hard as you think it is sounds greatly exaggerated.

That said, where does a new tank begin? I’ve thought about trying out some raids and dungeons, but honestly after looking through a few tank guides out there it sounds very overwhelming for a prospective tank. Sort of like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant.

Any suggestions for some great, simple ways to start off and build some competence as a tank? Maybe some things to avoid as a new tank (such as raids maybe) ?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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I haven’t tanked in years but on my monk and warrior I still do fiddle around and leap into action and it really is not hard. First thing is to know just know your skills, and your play style.

Understand dps and even healers can be aggressive zealots but YOU LEAD THE GROUP if you are to slow you will be yelled at, to fast you will be yelled at. You need to find a good ever moving forward pace that just clicks, takes practice but I recommend doing heroic dungeons which at this point are cake walk even normals helping lower levels through to learn that pace and skill you want to bring to the table.

As for raids…they show no mercy in LFR everyone expects you to be 100% high level high IQ know everything what to do how to do it without flaw or they again will yell and complain “wtf don’t know the fight don’t que” all I can recommend here is know how bosses work, have boss mods installed (DBM or something) and just, try. the concept of tanking, holding aggro, leading a group is all easy but yes you will have a learning curve no one can really help you out with bosses unless you know what to do (as said watch videos, guides) have mods installed and just, go for it. Just know LFR heros are brutal.

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Tanking is not hard but it comes with additional affixes - your groupmates.

16 years in the past. People are awful to tanks, I would never recommend tanking pugs.

This is a pretty good analogy. It can be done but it won’t be pleasant.

LFR, pug raids, pug M+ dungeons, and all pvp.

So true. And then they complain about 1 hour LFR queues.

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I say just jump into it, queue for a heroic dungeon. When you get your rotation down and can handle your aggro and CDs then you got it and can tank anything. Just know fight mechanics of course. You will find that fight mechanics are more forgiving to you as a tank than a healer or DPS.

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If you ever go to class discords for advice, make sure those people know what they’re doing.

People were saying Codex is bad in the DK discord when it’s literally BiS. Same thing in pally discord. They have no idea what they’re talking about.

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You’re a brave man, OP. They couldn’t pay me to tank PUGs.

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Thanks for your replies!

Tbh I’ve done it before in dungeons, but just regular ones. I never go into voice chat so I don’t need to listen to people being obnoxiously yelling. Granted I know if I want to start doing heroics/raids etc that’ll be a thing.

By the sounds of it, I think my best bet will be to find an active guild who is a bit more casual and just go from there. A place where I can learn with some people who Know I’m new and can guide me towards the light. As opposed to random PUGS who will no doubt lose their minds at the smallest set backs.

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It can be a crap shoot,but if you do pug heroics and the like say something about being new to tanking. Sometimes,just sometimes you will get a group that is supportive.

That said,I would find a guild or community or even a group of friends to run with until you learn the ropes.

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So try tanking what’s the worst that could happen you make a mistake?

Then you’ll learn…hopefully.

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You’re 100% right. Just gotta jump in. See I’m ok with making mistakes. In all areas of life we sort of fail our way to success. And I’m ok with constructive criticism for sure. Open to it really.

It’s funny since IRL I’m a tradesman and frequently lead a crew of guys with various tasks and duties for the day. I can lead and I’m confident, but theres always someone who talks smack about your ideas. All you can do is be open to suggestions, but also realize that its easy to criticize someone else, instead of being willing to put yourself in that position.

Off I go. I think I’ll try out Prot pally, I hear they are pretty fun and a bit easier to learn compared to some of the others!

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tanking is quite easy i do it and i generally suck at the game anymore than i used to. don’t listen to the forums most people ain’t mean to tanks anyway verything gets so exaggerated here it’s funny. just run some heroics for a bit or even lower keys for awhile it don’t take long to pick up and if you already do keys as dps or healer you pretty much know the routes already just by following tanks so. most people do complain raid tanking is quite boring so idk i always found it boring to.

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Have a look through these. There’s a lot of creators that create tanking guides.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wow+m%2B+tank+guide

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Codex is not BIS or even close to it until you’re literally doing top end keys. It’s a very specific trinket that serves a very specific purpose.

“It’s BiS because the top ranked m+ DK/Protadin/whatever” is a terrible argument and it should be obvious why it’s a terrible argument. Would you ordinarily consider cheat death trinkets BiS on DPS? No, but people who literally do keys at the pinnacle of key difficulty actually can and do find uses for cheat death trinkets on DPS. It’s not the same thing as telling people to just run codex who never even go above 25s, let alone people doing weekly 15s.

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I started tanking only after being dps and actively watching what my tanks do in groups. Look at the pacing, look at how they’re turning or not turning mobs. Before wanting to tank, I honestly didn’t really pay attention to the tank, I just did my smashy smashy kill kill. Keep in mind that depending on the tank you’re watching, you’ll see different things. For example, don’t try to learn from a 300+ ilvl tank speed running a friend through a +3 key lol. They could solo the whole thing if needed.

Do yourself a favour, and don’t try to immediately jump into heroic raiding or m+ 7 and above. Just don’t — mainly because at that level, people can rightfully (I stand by this) assume you DO in fact know the encounters, your role, and what to do.

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The hardest thing about it is bad dps and healers blaming you for everything.

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My best noobie advice is making sure you can see the mana bar of your healer at all times.

The hardest part about tanking is your reliance on the rest of your team.

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Trying to describe all this in writing makes it seem way worse. Most of it is also stuff you should know if you’re a DPS or healer anyway.

Wrath classic!

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You’re right, thing is Ive never raided/done mythics even as dps or healer. I mean it could be a better idea to try that as DPS first and then learn, then tank after.

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It never hurts to be forward with the group and let them know you’re a new tank. Might take you a minute to find a group, but there are people out there who will help you through the process. You gotta do the content to really know it.

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I tanked all through Legion (5-player, not Raids) on both my Warrior and as a BM Hunter (yeah, I know - but it works).

I’ve tried tanking on a Druid, but didn’t like the flow of it. Also the idea of Leather tanks is just . . . odd.

Protection Warrior gets some hate from folks, but I think that’s because it’s the least FOTM tank out there and old-is-bad to a lot of folks.

I saw some posts about “Don’t tank PUGs” but that’s where you’ll learn (at least in 5-player content).

My recommendation is to get your gear up doing M+ as often as you can.

Work at the level you’re comfortable with. I did six weeks of +2 to +4 keys when I started this toon.

Don’t worry about pushing the key levels up until you’ve got something decent in every slot. You’re going to need valor a lot more than a few very good pieces to start.

Learn the runs. Get Mythic Dungeon Tools and study the maps a bit.

Update the maps in it until you get a feel for how the pack pulls change with different affixes.

Find some grateful players who are either learning themselves or are tolerant of your own progression and add them to your friends list. Seek them out when you play. EVERYONE loves having a willing tank available.

Anyone toxic about your skills (or lack there of) make a decision about ignoring them (or not - up to you). If you do, that takes them out of the pool of folks who can apply to your groups (or you to theirs).

I strongly recommend making your own groups.

I strongly recommend keeping going if someone drops (at lower levels, I’ve completed some runs minus a healer and one dps - missed the timer but it’s useful to have to play with that sort of handicap as a training execise).

Don’t give up. Come to GD for help (look at my post history - you’ll see a LOT of noob tank questions and not a little whining when things didn’t go my way - it’s all educational).

Good luck with it.

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