Where is the best place to learn raid tanking?

I’m fairly new to raiding as a whole. I have a good amount of normal and LFR raiding experience as both a healer and a DPS. At a certain point I did have someone who was going to teach me off tanking in Leigon. However, sadly, that feel through, I’m not looking to just jump right into being a raid lead, however I have a well geared Vengeance DH who has been doing well in 5-6+ mythic dgs and would like to make an attempt to learn off tank. Unfortunately, learning tanking in LFRs is basically hell, and finding a guild that needs an off tank is proving to be it’s own unique challenge.

Ideally I want to find a raid leader is willing to show me Normals and Heroics before BFA is through, so I have a good idea of the basics of off tanking before shadowlands hits, and then hopefully continue being off tank continuing into SL. I am currently on Proudmore, and sadly the Discord Server I am on is less than helpful. Where would I go about finding a raid tank that would be willing to take me under their wing? Or are there better alternatives to learning to tank raids?

TL;DR

I want to find a raid tank I can learn under before shadowlands hits to be an off tank, though I am not sure where to search or if “apprenticing” under a good raid lead is even the right option

Any help is appreciated <3

Set up your UI in a way that ensure’s you can monitor the debuffs in the fight that controls the tank activities - the debuffs that cause taunt swaps.

Learn the fights by watching youtube videos and understand the basic strats used in PUGs.

For raid tanking I got a weakaura that pops up on the middle of my screen with their name and a unique sound when someone taunts my target off me which has streamlined the whole tank swapping thing.

Look up other players who play your class on warcraft logs to get an understanding of what talents/essences/gear setups they are using and use those as a baseline.

Put in the time and effort, be kind to your fellow tanks and ask them questions you have. Some will be jerks but I think you’ll find more often then not they’re willing to help.

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Use Icy veins for a good starter of what talents, stats, and consumables etc to help you be consistent. Dark mech a youtuber makes “5 minute tanking guide” videos to most mythic dungeons and raid bosses on each difficulty. Read or watch guides on how to play your tank rotation/strategy wise and whats its strengths and weaknesses are. Just like anything else its mainly practice. The more you just get over that initial anxiety of first doing it, the better it will be. You’ll fail in the begging and thats ok. Start with low m+ keys and normal raiding. More mistakes can be made and you can get a feel for things. Also helps if you find a nice group of people that are willing to accept mistakes and help you learn. However dont try to jump head first into high key pugs as they will typically be more unforgiving of mistakes and may sour your perspective on trying to tank.

I find twitch to be a fantastic place to learn. If you can find a few streamers for your chosen role who are great players with on average a couple of hundred viewers then it’s easy to ask them things and learn. Worked well for me with healing.

Ultimately though nothing beats practice

Then honestly, so far it seems like what I am doing is right, and the long and frustrating part is going to be finding a group that not only needs an off tank, but is ready and willing to help teach a fairly fresh one

A little bit of a misconception here. Tanking a raid doesn’t necessarily mean leading it. In fact, more often than not, you’ll find that the tanks aren’t the ones leading the raid, as they aren’t really in a good position to do so. Ideally, a ranged dps or healer would be leading, as they can get a better view and understanding of the raid as a whole.

Which isn’t to say that a tank can’t lead a raid, it’s just not a requirement of tanking. Personally, I think the best way to learn how to tank is to just jump into it. I used to be a tank myself, and while preparing before hand can be helpful, there really isn’t a substitute for learning from doing.

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