Hey all,
So ever since I’ve started playing the idea of a Tauren warrior, tank or dps, was so cool to me. Just being the big meatyboi cleaving huge weapons around is very appealing to me in fantasy games. I’ve always either mained a tauren warrior, or had one as my main alt (I’ve mained an undead priest as well, which i also love). My question to you all is: As a classic nub (started in mid/late TBC) will i be expected to tank as a warrior? I’m aware warriors will be in surplus, I’m just curious what I’ll have to be prepared to do if I’m gonna no life the launch.
I completely enjoy tanking and have no problem with it, I’ve just never done it before in classic WoW. I also fully intend to play with a much more casual group of players to learn the game with and just chill. I have no issue DPSing or tanking, and i know warriors will be in surplus anyway, but would it be a general expectation of me to tank? or to dps? Or does it just depend on whats needed?
I only ask to get a feeling of what guides I’ll need to watch in the coming days for leveling, and if there are any warrior/warrior tanking guides you all recommend they would be well received by me.
Thanks 
Really depends. Most tanks in leveling dungeons won’t want you as a dps because that’s loot competition. For max level dungeons and raids fury is fantastic dps and prot is amazing tanking so it will depend on what the group needs
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Just wanna throw it out there that as someone who leveled 3 warriors to 60 in vanilla (kill me), I found 5man tanking to be an intensely frustrating experience. Your tools for keeping aggro on multiple targets are extremely poor, especially compared to bear druids or prot paladins. It really feels like a battle against the rest of your group at all times.
It’s pretty rare to see dps warriors in 5mans, in my experience. Even if you run a dps build, you are typically expected to tank.
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Sadly, there is a misconception in Original WoW, especially for dungeons, that warrior = tank. So long as you don’t just accept an invite to a group which is asking for a warrior without checking if they mean tank or DPS first, you should be fine.
As to tanking tips / guides ? The biggest tips I can give you are :
- Don’t chain pull like a squirrel on m@th as they do in Retail. No quicker way to p*ss off the healer and mana using DPS at once than being a methsquirrel. Tanking in Retail is wildly different to Original / Classic.
- Ranged pulling and blocking L.o.S. is a thing, you need to learn it and do it often.
- TAB targeting and spamming sunder to 5 stacks on everything in a pull should become as normal to you as breathing.
- Taunting is easy to use, difficult to master. You have to understand how it functions, what classes have frequent agro spikes and what animations you need to watch for from other players so you can use it when it’s needed most. Threat meters can help to some extent, but if you consistently only use taunt to pull a mob back to you after its ran for someone else, you will quickly learn about mob’s that can one shot your clothies.
There’s many more subtle points that separate warrior tanks from being good to being exceptional, but some of them are player style based or situational. You’ll learn them as you go so long as you have a solid foundation to start with.
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warriors will always be main tank and you can tank as 2hd so you will get all the gear first then the 10-15 other warriors will get to roll on gear…lol.so if you think your going to dps as a warrior with 10 other warriors and get gear fast…lmao.
its good to be the main tank in classic.i forgot hunters get everything else after…lol.
The easiest option to get into raiding is to tank 5 mans and dps in raids. It’s difficult to get a spot as a dps Warrior in 5 mans and it’s also difficult to get a set tank spot in raids. Though even as dps, you will be expected to be able to OT at the drop of a hat.
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The key to warrior tanking in vanilla was a shield and defensive stance… Other than that it’s up to your group not to ruin the pull by taking aggro.
Since you are willing to tank, the easiest route is going to be to just tank the dungeons you want to run. You can have groups headed to the instance in minutes, vs. waiting around for someone to take a DPS Warrior.
You don’t need to be a tanking spec until around 60. I recommend you level as 31/20/0 for a number of reasons.
https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warrior/023050213325100031-55000104005
Fury has Hit/Weapon skill problems pre-60, but if you really just prefer that play style you can make it work too.
Every warrior with a Sword & Board in Defensive Stance is a tank in Vanilla/Classic, particularly the 5 mans.
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Everyone knows warriors are the worst tanks.
Hey that’s excellent. In addition I’d add that other DPS classes have a role in keeping aggro within your reach. Mages will have a hair trigger on a nova if the healer gets aggro, your rogue uses stuns to stop runners, hunters scatershot or pet taunt. A new tank shouldn’t be afraid to learn the role in classic because it’s easy to learn as you go.
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I suppose you technically “can” but you wont be tanking much before you’re dead without a shield…
ummmmm…this is wrong in so many ways, for such a short sentence it speaks volumes. You’re obviously tainted by Retail and the joke it is to “tank” in Retail.
Tanking in Original was so much more than “defense stance and a shield”, if that’s the sort of tank you are, I feel sorry for those who have to endure it. Nothing I do would be to extreme to avoid experiencing a “tank” as you describe.
DPS shouldn’t have to be careful with a true tank, the opposite is true actually. A good tank would hold agro under all circumstances, and could even deal with the DPS having a competition to see if they can pull agro off the tank. It was a task that you would devote every fiber of your being to, with a spec almost entirely in the prot tree ( so kiss any DPS goodbye ).
People…please for the love of god, don’t follow this guys belief if you’re going to tank, the only thing you will see is how quickly you can alienate yourself from good people.
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I was being silly 
But in all honesty a disciplined group could make a great tank out of a shaman while leveling. I don’t play retail.
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LOL, sorry, I missed the /s
Sad thing is there are people out there who honest to god believe this is all tanking is…
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It’s all about marking targets and making sure DPS knows what to kill / cc.
Tauren warriors are great because they have an extra AoE ability in Warstomp, which helps in situations where you’re scrambling trying to get aggro. I’d expect those situations wouldn’t happen more often than once every 2 minutes.
I dabbled in it till the 30s and all I remember was shouting, sundering and if i could mange it a thunder clap, which requires battle stance btw.
Sunder + Heroic strike are your bread and butter as a warrior tank.
Once you go prot, you get shield slam(the equivalent of Mortal Strike or Bloodthirst, but for Prot).
Warriors are weak when it comes to AoE tanking(You basically just tab-target and apply/reapply sunders), but it’s intuitive once you get used to.
If you wanna super min-max:
Horde:
Trolls > Orc > Tauren > Undead for tanking.
Alliance:
Human > NElf > Dwarf > Gnome for tanking.
Orc is kinda the “best of both worlds” for the Horde side as far as PVP and PVE go, whether you’re doing damage or tanking. The passive stun resist is huge in PVP.
Human are the best tanks and best PVE damage dealers alliance side, with Gnomes being the best PVP warriors. Nelfs are good for WPVP and BGs because of Shadowmeld, Dwarves are okay at fighting rogues because of stoneform.
Quickness is a pretty good racial too.
1% dodge is great, but the humans get sword and mace spec. With most end game tanking weapons being swords, humans have the best threat gen alliance side and can make up that 1% dodge really really easily.
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