I am new to being a warrior and I am board and sword. I’m going into Proc with Arms. I’m not going until another level or two but I need tips. Played with one other person doing quests and I feel like I’m not doing a good job. I do threat but it seems I can only threat one enemy at a time.
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Get used to using tab to switch targets. It will generally only switch to targets you are facing. You will need to switch targets quickly in order to build threat against multiple targets, or quickly taunt an enemy before it runs out of your range to attack the healer or a dps that pulled threat.
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Use revenge on whenever it’s up. This will save rage since it is a low cost, high threat ability.
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Don’t use Thunderclap. It is not a tanking ability. It is high cost, low damage low threat. It has some niche uses, but it’s best to just not even think about it until you have a handle on tanking
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Sunder armor is your bread and butter. Use this to generate threat, not mortal strike.
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Use Battleshout and Demoralizing shout while in Defensive stance, on every pull. The increased threat generation while in Defensive Stance will help you to hold aggro.
For spec, you should start with Arms first, then spec into Prot. This is because you want to get Anger Management. It has an unlisted effect that makes you generate 1 rage per 3 seconds while in combat. You will find it very difficult to keep your rage up without this.
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Don’t die.
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You wont have enough rage to even truly try to tank until your early 50s really.
1.12 is post many rage nerfs and Blizzard didnt really bother tuning the early game warrior experience lol.
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Other people will have agro, and that’s ok.
Keep an eye on healer’s mana.
If something is below 50% and switches to a dps, don’t bother taunting, they can kill it on their own.
If it looks like a pull might get messy, or you are having issues with runners agroing other packs, line of sight them back a ways.
Have fun!
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Respec arms.
Charge, thunder clap, switch to def stance, shield block, swtich to battle stance, thunder clap… Then start putting sunders and rends on everything while paying attention, finger on def stance key waiting to need a taunt.
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This is terrible advice. Do not listen to this. You will never keep aggro if you do what this guy says.
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You have to use raid markers on mobs for your DPS to prioritise, warriors don’t have much AoE threat abilities early on.
Also use ranged to pull single/groups of mobs away from other groups
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This is bad information, thunder clap doesn’t do ANYTHING for threat. This clown is setting you up for failure.
I would wait until you’re a few levels above the bosses, personal choice.
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walk yourself to ironforge and pick up a gun so you can effectively ranged pull.
that’s about all I know about warrior tanking.
I don’t play warrior, but didn’t Demo shout get nerfed to the ground for aggro?
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A bug was fixed that was causing it to generate more aggro than it should. That doesn’t mean it isn’t an effective ability. Just the bad tanks that were spamming it to hold aggro can’t use their lazy strategy anymore.
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Classic Warrior tanking is not easy. Theres a lot of tab targeting. One thing you can do is mark a target with skull before the pull and most DPS are competent enough to attack that one. Mages will make your life hell when they cast Blizzard. I found 2H Arms to be better for rage and therefore better for damage and threat. I start in battle stance, charge in, blood rage, get a quick thunderclap off then switch to defensive stance and start sundering mobs until everyone has 2 stacks. Its a little rougher on the healer, but it works.
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It got “nerfed” to where it should be, it wasn’t working as intended. The threat issue has been more of a dps, sperg out issue than something the tanks are doing, not doing in most cases.
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It did but is still a good opener for short term mob threat after charging in.
At the 20 level, biggest issue is that stance dance is still a work in progress. If you don’t spec all arms for it, avoid shifting back and forth or you’ll be wasting what little rage you’re getting.
Go for fastest 1-hander with the best dps if you’re doing shield. Look for fastest 2h if you go that route. Faster hits mean faster threat gen and faster rage build. VC’s sword is great for rogues and darn nice for tanks at that range.
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This is really going to be the key to the OP’s deadmines experience. You are gonna lose aggro a lot because its really hard to get rage that early in the game. Worry about elites, but dont sweat it when the regular mobs run amok. Its gonna happen and its not a huge deal.
It gets better as you level, but DM is a rude introduction to warrior tanking because of the lack of rage. Just expect it.
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I’d recommend going Arms for leveling even if you want to tank the odd dungeon. It will make leveling way easier and you’ll still easily be able to tank most every dungeon with no issues. I think the only exception is if you are pretty certain you are always going to be playing with 2 or more other people you can absolutely 100% definitely rely on to be good players at pretty much any given time. Even then deep speccing into Prot still really isn’t that necessary. I’m currently 31-5-3 and facing negative issues tanking ZFs.
Honestly though, just keep mobs off the healer. Everyone else they can tank a mob but if you’re healer gets hit they are either going to cast spells really slowly or just straight up not be able to cast.
It’s probably not until your mid to late 40s that you’re going to be able to consistently hold aggro in dungeons on multiple enemies so honestly just focus on keeping mobs off the healer and if at all possible make sure that only 1 mob is hitting a DPS at any given time. Use Skulls to urge the DPS into what to attack first. If a DPS pulls aggro on a mob and you’re not getting hit honestly make a macro that switches weapon and stance and start DPSing, a defensive stance sword and board warrior not getting hit is honestly the most useless thing in the entire game
#showtooltip Battle Stance
/cast Battle Stance
/equip your 2 hander
If you somehow manage to regrab aggro then a defensive stance macro is recommended
#showtooltip Defensive Stance
/cast Defensive Stance
/equip your shield here
/equip your 1 hander
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Don’t try to tank everything. I didn’t even bother taking skull. Not enough tools in your arsenal to do it.
Just make sure you got the bosses’ attention.
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I can already tell you that tanking is not for you
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V’s sword is slower than some 2h weapons. For tanking, you want a moderately fast weapon.
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