Currently leveling up a warrior - level 34 with focus on Prot talents. Intend to tank, and I can tank dungeons easily while leveling.
And I have to say, tanking dungeons is absolutely horrible. It’s an AWFUL experience. The least fun I’ve had tanking dungeons since I started a Prot Paladin in BC (which was great fun after getting Blessing of Sanctuary and Holy Shield). I currently main tank for my guild in heroic Eternal Palace, and frequently spam mythic+ dungeons as well. I sometimes dip into LFG for random call to arms boosts, so I know how randoms can be, but still…
Holy f-ing cow, man. As a 34 Warrior in Classic, I DO NOT HAVE AoE capabilities. My taunt is melee range, on a 10 sec CD (haven’t talented it). And every dps player I’ve seen so far goes flippin balls-to-the-walls before I’ve landed an auto-attack, then expects me to do something about it.
To hell with that. Protection Warrior is too damn clunky for me to stress about focusing all the threat on me. I remember Vanilla - “wait for 5 sunders,” “you spank it, you tank it,” “INSTALL A THREAT METER.”
But honestly, does Prot Warrior get better at AoE threat? I put 11 points into Arms for Anger Management and Tactical Mastery, so I can swap in and out of Battle Stance for Thunder Clap, but it’s not nearly enough threat generation. Are there veteran Prot Warriors that can give me some insight on AoE tanking?
you dont need prot talents for dungeon leveling? Whoever says that is just bad at the game. I have been farming SM with 4 warriors in fury spec and a enhance shaman healing. The Sham is just dropping WindFury Totem and watching 4 warriors go to town.
While leveling healers do not need heal talents and tanks while leveling do not need tank talents.
If the dps are pulling threat that is their issue, this was a mechanic in vanilla.
Not everything has to be glued to the warrior in 5 man dungeons. There is nothing wrong with a mob or two peeling away and then being taken care of by other classes. Don’t stress about it to much.
I hate to admit this, but retail dungeons have soiled classic dungeons for me as well. As a healer, it drives me crazy when the tanks are too careful. Yes, you can pull while I’m drinking, it’s only a pack of two mobs. We’ll be fine!
Tanking in 5-mans is really only a core concern in large packs or with bosses. Otherwise, it’s just up to you to focus as many as possible and let the others deal with the fallout. Like others have said, if a DPS pulls away a mob or two then that’s fine so long as you have decent healing.
Mostly your duty outside of bosses is to just corral the mobs and protect the healers. If you see a mob pealing for a healer, then use your sunders or taunts to get them off them. Leave your rend on them and move back to whatever mob is the most lethal of the pack.
When you’re level 60 and ready to start raids, then respec to Prot. Arms/Fury warrior is the best for leveling and world pvp.
Tab sunder, cleave spam(if excess rage). Be arms and start every pull with sweeping strikes. If there are more than about 3, maybe 4 mobs, AOE tanking isn’t gonna work too well. Your healer is likely gonna draw heal aggro keeping you up through that. Use CC.
Good news is, once you taunt a mob, it’ll be a while before someone can pull it off you again because it sets your threat equal to the person you taunted it off of.
DPS needs to wait until a sunder or two has gone up on the focus target or they are gonna pull it.
Tanks dont rule in Vanilla or Classic, Healers do. They’re the ones that control the flow. We already know you suck and mobs are going to hit everyone. You just keep trying to keep bosses off people and worry about adds as an after thought
As far as trash is concerned. All we expect out of you is to try your hardest. Thats all. Dont worry about peeling off of DPS, worry about Peeling off of heals if needed and thats priority.
I run righteous fury when healing so I try to get aggro with you. At least all I have to do is heal two people instead of everyone. But thats just me
Your only forms of AOE threat are thunderclap, demoralizing shout, and cleave. swap targets a lot.
Revenge and sunder armor are your primary threat generators. Never use heroic strike unless you’re somehow drowning in rage. If the others won’t focus your target, don’t be a whiner about it: just taunt theirs back to you instead.
Keep sunders up to 5 on bosses, 1 or 2 is fine for trash.
interrupt any and all possible casts.
If you massively outgear an instance, consider dual wield tanking: blocking means you take no damage, thus denying you enough rage to tank. Do NOT try this on level appropriate content.
Finally, don’t panic. if non-elite mobs get pulled off you, ignore them: anyone can tank that for a bit. if an elite mob gets pulled, note who its fighting: a priest or warlock needs peeling, a paladin can hold her own.
Ultimately, tanks aren’t the mob magnets they are in retail. It gets a bit tough, but it’s better this way.
I’ve had Warriors that were Prot spec and ones that weren’t, and both specs did well at taunting. I can tell that some tanks were skilled and some just weren’t, regardless of which spec they went with. And I only just hit 35 last night so whatever they were doing, AoE wasn’t a problem even at lower levels. Of course it is a group effort, though.
Mark a kill target, pull, battle shout for aoe threat while the dps focus the kill target, taunt it after they’ve dumped their alpha strikes onto it. Chuck a couple sunders on the next target.
Oh, and don’t stress if a dps has agro from a non-destructive mob. They can handle your typical elites, you just want to have more on you than they do on them, and you want to make sure the boss/thing that hits really hard is on you.
Use Demo Shout. Generates some threat and has no target cap. In my Druid experience, Demo Roar doesn’t generate enough threat to hold aggro against Blizzard though. Also, try to start in Battle Stance and Charge in for initial rage.