We did DM two weekends ago with 3 17s a 19 warrior tank and a 21 dps. It was hard but doable. I was tanking rage was an issue. Get a gun! LoS pull, mark, save your taunt to peel off the healer and hold bosses. 17s will face pull capt off boat so be ready. Kill casters first or their fireballs will hurt. Kill goblins then their pets. Be wary of almost all forum advice.
If you’ve never tanked it, it’s a lot easier at 20-22.
All this talk has me wanting to level my warrior so I can tank. Never done it before but it sounds like fun.
Not trying to hijack the thread, but I had a similar question on
low level warrior as dps. The same issue comes up in lack of rage.
The tank has aggro, thus the dps warrior isn’t getting much of any rage, so what is a good tactic for dungeon dps in the level 20 range.
You stand there and wait.
Just to be clear, I’m asking for advice on doing dps, I completely understand making sure the tank has aggro before starting in.
I want to know how to contribute my part, when rage is limiting.
You stand there and wait for your rage to build up. Use rage pots or Bloodrage if you feel it’s necessary.
Really? Actually, if you look at any numbers, it doesn’t seem like bad advice at all, and I doubt there will be much issue with holding threat either.
Although, I’d personally go with Thunder Clap for dmg mitigation over threat, this is not a bad opener at all, imo.
A lot of people spec deep Arms while leveling, some prefer Fury, and still some go deep prot. There are trade offs to each decision, and ultimately it’s up to the individual, but all choices are viable while leveling, though I’d say going deep Prot early will likely push you to run more dungeons, or party more often than you may otherwise (not that that’s a bad thing).
I put together a low level warrior tanking guide that may be of some interest, and I’d love some feedback on. I’ll be updating it for higher level stuff shortly.
There are some sections on macros as well, which I find helpful. I’m a big fan of understanding the reasons behind the advice, and digging into how to know how to know for oneself, so I also recommend having a look at Magey’s WIKI for Threat Mechanics: https://github.com/magey/classic-warrior/wiki/Threat-Mechanics
It can be very helpful to understand precisely how threat is generated, and which skills to use in which situations.
One such skill is Battle Shout, and having an understanding how its multiplier works on party members (and their pets) who are currently on the threat table of a mob, makes it clear when and how it can be beneficial for keeping aggro on mobs over AoE damage dealers.
Re-read his comment. He advocates for tanking in Battle Stance and repeatedly using Thunderclap. While only swithing to Defensive stance to taunt. How you can think this is good advice is mind boggling. You will not hold aggro at all if you do this. The healer will pull threat off you.
Opening in battle stance with charge, then dumping rage (or even not, if tactical mastery is talented) prior to swapping stances to def stance is a fine opener.
He did mention swapping back to Battle Stance, then Thunder Clap, and no mention of Def Stance, so I suppose I could have paid more attention.
Like I said above, I wouldn’t use TC for threat generation, but would for dmg mitigation, though that’s likely not a big issue at lower levels. After an initial charge, rage dump maybe with TC, or Demo Shout (or SS, if you have it) then swap to Def Stance, get and if AoE has already started, then CS isn’t bad or WW, if you have it yet), and start tab-sundering.
FWIW, this part actually helped a fair bit.
And your tanking guide is on point. Just that guy I was initially responding to has no idea what he’s talking about.
Classic and Vanilla dps (mage/hunter/lock) group suggestions:
First wait. No tank alive can out-dps you at first. I learned that back in Vanilla, forgot it in recent years, and re-learned it in Classic.
Then, if the tank is fighting one mob, I aim for that mob with my single-target spells. Less likely to pull them. An untouched mob? If you hit it, you own it.
How do I know which of the 3 to shoot at? I tab between them and shoot at the one who has lost 10%-15% of their health. If he hasn’t lost 10% then the tank does not have aggro yet.
Often my first shot is NOT my most powerful shot. If I’m shooting a mob that has lost 40%, THEN I use my most powerful shots.
I’m always watching the healer. Unless the tank is level 40 or this is retail, sooner or later 1 of the 3 mobs will run to the healer. Healing the tank puts aggro on the healer. That’s when I use my pet (if I have one) or my sheep (if I’m a mage) or just my strongest spells: get that mob off the healer, even if it kills me.
If the healer is okay, my job is mowing down mobs. If the tank can’t keep all of them on the tank, it’s open hunting season on the others. All of my soloing tools, tricks and spells get used then. I’m soloing this mob (but others will come help me soon).
Marking is great, if someone can handle it. Mark a dps target and a sheep/cc target. Don’t touch the 3d guy until the dps target is dead. The tank can usually hold 2 that way.
If your group has lots of pets/cc, then the tank just needs to handle 1 mob and the pets/cc temporarily hold the 2 others. It’s amazing how fast they go down when 4 players are hitting the same target.
First off look up fury/prot. This is your best tank spec. For deadmines a 2 hander is fine. Charge in hit sweeping strikes, switch to beserker stance, use whirlwind. Tab sunder. You will be fine just DPS tanking.
Hes level freaking 20. Thats his best option
Lol my first tanking experience was at lvl 23 in bfd. I didn’t even have defensive stance yet because I was too retarded to complete the quest for it. I couldn’t hold aggro and my group just carried me while berating me for sucking. At the final boss the healer priest tanked by PW:Shielding and healing herself. I didn’t even have a 2H so I was essentially dpsing with a sword and board while not even holdng aggro lol. Was a fun group, at the end I asked if they wanted to run it again.
Keep healer alive.
Early levels are going to be a pain regardless. Personally I find Fury(with points up to TM) a better starting build then either deep Arms or Prot. Rage is going to be your biggest issue, this is why thunderclap isn’t the best idea, mainly due to the reduced rate dmg is taken meaning less rage. Also if you run with a priest, best to let them know NOT to shield you initially, as this causes rage issues and a spike in threat towards the priest(if done during pull).
Outside of that tanking is simply controlled chaos, tabbing sunder/revenge, hovering over taunt for when a caster/healer grabs threat, hoping DPS runs towards you not around like an idiot if they get aggro, and avoiding groups with dps warriors.
I did my first one at level 17. Think I did pretty well tanking lol.
My biggest tip I can give to you and it took me awhile to think about this. Don’t die.
people are making this sound so complicated, when I did it on my warrior I just marked all the mobs, used a gun to pull, stayed in d stance, used my shouts, revenge, and sunder. The abilities literally say on them if they do bonus threat. Use the abilities that do bonus threat. Taunt any mobs that switch targets. Shield bash casters when they cast. Didn’t bother with heroic strike, hamstring, thunder clap, or rend. That’s it.
Yea your def right. I was in defensive stance the whole time. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.