Didn’t see this posted anywhere or it’s probably too far down but this is something I’ve been struggling with in higher level dungeons.
For the life of me I cannot hold aggro. I’ve read articles that have given some helpful rotation for arms/tank like charge -> blood rage -> sweeping strikes -> whirlwind -> zerker rage -> at this point switch to defense and tab target sunder/revenge. This rotation no longer works, big part due to I can’t hold a two hander anymore in high level dungeons without it being difficult for the healer. At this point I’ve been doing charge -> thunderclap -> blood rage -> demo/battle shout -> switching to defense and tab target sunder/revenge
Even with this they keep peeling off me and running to range dpsers. Any helpful rotations/macros? or is it the fact that Im arms/fury spec? Is switching to prot spec more important here? I don’t want to switch due to pvp and Ive seen other dps wars tank with little aggro issues.
It may also be due to the fact that DPS keep going ham as soon as I pull but this is another conversation, would love to just have a solid rotation down. Any tips welcomed
Consider using Berserker Rage immediately before the pull. Often I’ll Berserker Rage then swap to Battle and Charge in.
Note that you can equip a 2H for some pulls and, if you’re needing the survivability boost, switch to a 1H/Shield in combat. Get a macro to do that switch for you.
Thunder Clap and Demo Shout both do little threat. They’re more useful if you need the defensives. Thunder Clap is especially bad because you don’t get the Defensive Stance modifier to threat generated. When you apply Battle and Demo Shout, you ideally want to be in Defensive Stance for that reason. Demo Shout does somewhat acceptable AOE threat when there are several mobs.
Other than that, yeah just get in Defensive Stance quickly and start the Sunder/Revenge spam.
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Couple of things.
First, if you’re tanking a 4 pack don’t worry so much about holding all 4. Any DPS can tank a caster mob with zero issues, they have kicks and stuns, and casters generally die very fast. Put skull on a caster mob and forget about it.
Put your threat into the hard hitting melee mobs and tank them. That’s your highest priority. Usually there’s only 1-2. If there’s more, make sure one has a skull on it and do your best, making sure you definitely hold onto the ones that aren’t skull.
For big trash packs in general be commanding from the start. Make sure you get first hits, maybe whirlwind quickly with a 2h or dual wield before putting your shield on. If you want to do better than that start thinking about how you can generate good bursty AOE damage: grenades, oil of immolation, anything that reflects damage (shield spike, thorns, ret aura, etc).
Tanking in classic is a bit messier than retail where threat is a non issue. Go with the flow, hold onto the hard hitters, use whatever tricks you can. At the end of the day, the difficult content is all multi-tanked and the dungeons can be cleared by pretty undergeared groups so don’t sweat it too much.
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Definitely will look into a whirlwind two handed entrance then quickly switch weps with a macro.
Unfortunately I specced into BS and im pretty deep in so bombs aren’t an option but will put in shield spike, thorns and aura if available.
Thanks for the tips fellow warriors
Some of the engineering bombs are usable by non-engineers. Can’t think which off the top of my head but there’s a couple of them.
Dense dynamite? Maybe.
One more thing that comes to my mind, if you let DPS pull a mob, then taunt it, it’s yours with a good amount of threat. Sometimes you can just taunt it and then switch right back to whatever else you were doing and that’s long enough to keep it on you or at least not on them. Mocking blow too. Don’t taunt a mob at the start of a pull if you can help it.