Tank Advice for a New WoW Tank, but not New MMO Tank

Good day!

I know this has probably been asked a million times, but I was hoping for a more fresh answer. I have recently returned to WoW after not playing for 5 years. I played Classic to WotLK retail (stop), came back for a bit in Legion (stop), and I’m back again for Dragonflight. I played DPS the whole time in WoW, but in other MMOs (FFXIV and ‘old’ SWTOR) I mained a tank. In SWTOR, I did organize the raid equivalent but not the really hard stuff. In FFXIV I main a tank and have done savage and dabbled in ultimates. Now to the main question:

How to tank in WoW? I really want to, as I like being the bus driver and the like. However, the main mechanic in WoW is holding threat and navigating the dungeons/raids, much different than what I’m used to in FFXIV. I admit I got inspired to try my hand in tanking due to an awesome Monk tank in a LFR fighting Razageth. I don’t plan on playing anything harder than LFR & heroic dungeons.

I am open to getting mods that help out, and any advice. Is there a community or Discord I should join? WoW has changed so much that I do get pretty lost.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post and I hope you have a wonderful day! :slight_smile:

Choose the tank you want first. The tanks here play very differently unlike Final Fantasy where they all kinda play the same and just look different visually.

Mods - Deadly Boss Mods will get you warnings about boss abilities or taunt swaps (where you will need to take aggro from the other tank)

Plater, or an add on similar to it, will allow you to customize nameplates to make enemy health bars easier to see

If you’re not doing anything harder than LFR or Heroic, tanking will be pretty easy. Just like in FFXIV dungeons your job is to pull the monsters and take all their attacks. Most stuff in heroic and LFR won’t really hurt a lot and even if you screw up it’s not really a big deal.

There’s a discord called WoW made easy that has lots of channels for different classes and also channels for tanking where people can give helpful tips.

If you decide eventually to venture into Mythic plus, Quazii wow has a great youtube channel for mythic plus tanking

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Mizari gave a great answer.

I’ll just add, since you asked specifically

Threat is not a problem for tanks any more. It was the main problem in Classic Era, but the devs relented because of the scarcity of tanks, anf they now have the approximate threat of Globel Thermonuclear War. :smiley: You won’t have to ask DPS to hold off or wait or anything like that, and if a DPS does pull too fast, you can pick it up easliy.

Navigation and routes is a thing, and perhaps more than you remember. Mythic-plus dungeons with their timings and trash percentage requirements have made it important. And even though that is not required below M+, a lot of people on alts are going to expect to see the types of routes they’re used to in M+. Also, mechanics are kind of a thing.

The good news is that just this week Blizzard opened Follower Dungeons, in your LFD screen, where you can run them with NPC followers, and get used to the routes and the mechanics. There are also, ofc, endless YouTube videos showing the tips and tricks.

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Awesome, thank you! My bestie that brought me back let me know about the must have mods like DBM and got me a name plate one that makes it in my face as well as highlights the threat levels. I’ve been leveling an alt via dungeons exclusively because that is some of my favourite stuff, and I’ve noticed that people are pretty patient, at least in the non-Dragonflight ones. My friend said he’ll heal me as well. I was going to go Monk tank, because that’s something I haven’t seen before. I will definitely check out that discord, thank you! I just don’t want to waste people’s time while I learn. I might do Mythic, but that’s a difficulty scale that’s too intimidating for now. :slight_smile:

Thank you very much for your reply and advice! I appreciate it. Take care and have a good one!

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If you end up doing mythic plus just make a group from the wow made easy discord, or when you make the mythic plus group label it as “chill” or “completion” and you will get more laid back folks.

Chill implies laid back patient people who aren’t jerks and completion means you’re not worried about getting the dungeon done in time, you just want to complete it.

This season most of the dungeons aren’t super punishing on mechanics and things until you get at least past +10 so don’t be afraid to try a +2-5 to get your feet wet.

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