Question to all tanks. How do you do it?

Gameplay Dungeons, Raids and Scenarios
1

It doesn’t matter if you are a Prot, Guardian, Vengeance, brewmaster, or Blood DK like me. How can you handle it?

I want to main Blood DK so much, I tried to tank twice as a Prot warrior but the fact I was the only one, I couldn’t just blend in with the DPS. I was the center of it all and I will be honest. I got massive stage fright and the two times? Regardless of the positive feedback from the other four, it sort of traumatized me. The stress, the nervous tension.

I know how to play Blood, I spent many hours reading into the meta guides, and youtube videos. Just can’t bring myself to click that Group Finder button or LFR. I am sort of new to WoW, Joining just little over a year ago.

I respect tanks and healers so much, you guys can do something I can barely do.

Any tips or advice to get over it? Genuinely, I am struggling.

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This is my 3rd tank. I prefer healing over tanking but the queues for healers are almost as bad as dps lately.
Just don’t think about it like being the center of attention. You have a job to do just like anyone else. Sure, if you fail it is more obvious, unlike a dps that can blame the healer if they die or blame the tank if things are going too slow.
Do yourself a favor and tank easy content repeatedly… Until it gets boring and you start to get daring in an attempt to speed things up. Tank easy stuff until it’s boring and keep queuing up. That boredom is called experience, that experience is called being good.
If someone else screws up, that’s on them. If they get toxic, leave.

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3

Pretty much this. Playing a prot warrior, to me, is rushing in and stomping a mud hole while avoid every bit of damage I can. Running if I have to and taunting off the overzealous DH or Arms warrior.

This is just how you play the spec. It’s a rotation like any other, just includes trying to survive.

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Just wanna say I identify completely with the OP. I tried tanking and I just couldn’t get comfortable with it. So I really appreciate you guys who do it day in and day out, and I’ll keep healing you. :slight_smile:

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5

When I first began tanking back in MoP, it was very stressful. Since then it has become a mindset, so tanking/healing are the more enjoyable roles. If you are feeling nervous there are several things you can do to help:

  1. Become comfortable with your class/spec. This way you are aware of how to handle a variety of situations with your given toolkit. The proving grounds and mage tower challenges were great ways to do this.

  2. Look at guides/videos of the content you are interested in running. Heading into a dungeon or raid knowing what to expect will definitely help, especially the dungeon routes. As the tank, you are expected to lead the group and set a reasonable pace.

  3. Try out new content with friends or a group that understands that you are learning and desire patience. This alone can take some of the “go tank gogogo” pressure off you. You can form your own groups with a description of “friendly, relaxed run” and people should be pretty mellow.

I tend to tank/heal, so you are welcome to friend me. I can heal you and help with any advice while you become comfortable with the content. <3

Bnet is Sarovok#1163

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I used to main a healer. It was great fun with friends.

Then they quit and having to pug with people made me reroll to tank.

People either pulling too slow or doing bad pulls drive me nuts.

Now I get to control my own groups and pulls.

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7

Run all the dungeons on heroic until memorized. Then regular mythic for the added mechanics, until memorized. Then move on up.
Knowing every aspect of the pulls lets YOU control when to use your defensive cooldowns etc. Achieve this, then its just up to dps not being incompetent. Healing wise you’ll be easy to maintain due to proactive playing.
Know the encounters thoroughly and You will be in control. I had a full blown anxiety attack first time I tanked Sartharion 25man regular, pug, in Wrath. Know the content and ease in, i cant stress this enough.
Always remember the spewing dbag dps in random queues is most likely worse off social wise than us with cold fingers. :wink:
/hug

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8

Ideally run with guildies or friends, knowing you and where you’re at they’ll be more prone to give you advice or commendation. Makes learning a much more comfortable experience.

If you don’t have friends (or they’re just not on at the moment) then you’ll be pugging, and the good thing about pugging is that everyone’s a stranger. If you have a bad run where you screw up or someone flames you, the next run will be with brand new people who don’t remember that. Every group is a fresh start and you shouldn’t care too much about what strangers think about you.

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The only way to get over stage fright is to go out on stage. I used to play a dps, but then I got tired of long queue times when my schedule did not line up with organized content. I re-rolled to a tank and went for it. Sometimes I did well; sometimes I did not. Over time, I tend to do well more often than not.

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I never expected to be a tank non the less a main tank for a guild. I started in legion because it was the start of letting a tank keep up with dps if they could do it right.
It can be nervous but on lower end content take some friends and give it a go, taunt everything you see and play defensive as you can at first until you get out of your shell.

Then when you are ready to pop that bubble burst out hit stuff harder and understand there is no such thing as a tank problem…Just healer problems.

  1. Health drops - Healer problem
  2. Taunt the wrong guy - Healer should have kept up the other tank better
  3. You Die- guess who is at fault

Just kidding but in all reality go into and have fun if you dont enjoy the game play you are doing it isn’t worth it.

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Just put group on ignore an play like your questing lol

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You are not alone by any stretch, this is the real reason many people avoid tanking - they don’t like being the centre of attention.

There’s nothing wrong with that btw.

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Think of it like a scary movie. The first time it is terrifying but by the 20th time that jump scare happens it isn’t really scary anymore. If it’s LFG the best thing you can do is just jump in and you will eventually desensitize. If you are looking for mythics then try to focus on learning one or two dungeons really well and branch out from there. Fat Boss on YouTube is a great resource for learning dungeon specific mechanics.

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I’d suggest doing some of the dungeons as DPS first, then trying out tanking as you get experience. As a tank it’s already expected of you to know every affix, every route, every mechanic etc. So jumping into m+ now, like halfway into the expansion, is not ideal. As a tank anyway. Being a dps is far more forgiving.

The m+ culture is also quite toxic if you pug, which means you’ll get singled out a lot as an inexperienced tank. You need to have thick skin in general to be a tank, regardless. You get idiots who are 1800 on their mains or something jumping into +4 on alts and then roasting noobs who are just starting to play the system. It’s stupid, but it is what it is. And then on the other side you get straight up incompetent players who will look at anyone else to pin the blame, and since the tank is usually the assumed leader, that will be you. You didn’t pull it right, your positioning is off, etc. You name it, they’ll say it.

You wanna make some friends while doing m+. If you’re a good tank, they’ll usually come to you. I often get asked for people to add me to Bnet and such, since tanks aren’t very common in the pug scene. For the above reasons.

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15

Grievous. The people are the real affix. As someone who has played since Vanilla I cant believe they allow it. Let alone get this far awry… what they’ll allow for a sale is lamentable these days… anyways.

OP You can do it!! Just shrug off the deplorables. You can always leave or ignore the worst :+1: You WILL get another group

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I have a blood DK and a Protection Warrior. I love both. The best thing to do is just go for it. Have some patience with yourself and your party, but take charge and just get in there.

It’s a balance. No one likes an overly slow tank who is too afraid to do anything, but rushing ahead without keeping track of how your aggro is, where your party is, and if the healer has mana can be just as bad.

It’s okay to ask for directions or advice. Not everyone will be willing to help, but I find most are.

Overall awareness, keeping threat, and using your defensives to keep yourself alive are the basics. The rest will come with practice.

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Hey Amethyna,

I totally understand where you’re coming from because when I started playing in Legion I was so nervous when I went to tank my first raid that I felt sweat trickle down from my armpit! LOL

What helped me was to research fights first using WoWhead or video guides on Youtube until I felt really confident about having memorized what I theorhetically should be doing once I got into the raid. At that point you just have to take the plunge, start with LFR tanking to get your feet wet and gain some comfort.

Try to remind yourself that you’re doing this for fun and try and laugh at your own silly mistakes (also take note of those mistakes to learn from).

Even tanks that are veterans make newbie mistakes. I still chuckle at a screw up I made in the last raid Antorus in Legion where I joined an LFR on the second to last boss to learn how to tank it, I messed up a taunt mechanic which caused the boss to punt me off the platform so far that I died and was unrezzable. The raid was forced to wipe since you couldn’t do the rest of the fight with only 1 tank alive. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at my own stupidity and knew that I needed to ninja quit the raid in shame.

Long story short, you’re gonna mess up, you’re gonna feel dumb. So learn to laugh at it and just dive right in.

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You need to do it. Reading and knowing your rotation is great, but you need to get in there and do it.

If you don’t know the dungeons/pathing this is going make it more difficult. Look up a site like http://quickdungeon.com or https://sunniersartofwar.com and pick the dungeons you want to run - don’t use randoms - get use to the maps, boss abilities, etc… run them multiple times on normal, then heroic, then move on to the next one.

In terms of knowing your spec or tanking in general, try rolling one of each tank from 15/20 - 60. Just spam dungeons. Don’t waste time questing. By 60 you’ll have 80% of your kit and should have a good feel for what needs to be done… then roll you DK - since you start at 58 anyway.

If you get a new ability lock your level for a while and practice seeing what it does to your rotation.

Use the “proving grounds” by talking to a class trainer. Try to get the proving ground achievement.

These are all good ways to get practice in.

edit… also, pay attention to your healer. make sure they are in range and not oom

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As a tank, you have two jobs: keeping the attention of the bad guys and not dying. If you can do both, you’re winning.

Tonight, try just making it through one dungeon without dying or losing aggro, then come back and tell us how it went :slight_smile:

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Advice I have for new tanks.

1- DO NOT worry about what everyone else is doing too much. Its a rabbit hole. As long as you focus on “being the tank” you will be good. You need to learn, we all did. Also, being a tank doesn’t always mean you are the leader. As you grow more confidant then if you wish you can assume that role as well but for now, focus on tanking.

2- Don’t just pick flavor of month tank spec. Find the tank that feels right to you. I have 4 tanks and at this point in the game I find myself favoring the pally. Last expac was my DK, before that was my monk and originally was my druid. Classes change and you should play what you feel comfortable playing as this is when you will excel. If you are fighting a toon cause you aren’t happy with it, you will have issues.

3- Expect and ENJOY spectacular deaths. It will happen, so don’t let it upset you. Learn from it, enjoy it… have a giggle even if no one else is. This is a game after all. =)

Confidence in tanking comes as you tank. The more you do it and learn, the better you will get and the more confidence you will have in your abilities.

Have fun and tank on!