Tank Hard!

This was posted as a comment to another post, but I felt it was so well written that it deserved a post of its own.  So here I present a post from guest blogger,Varangian.

Hello all first timer on these forums but an interesting read so far. I’d like to share some of my encounters as a tank.

As with most WoW players I began my existance as a DPS warrior to level as fast as possible. I’ve been playing WoW since 2007 so not as long as many who have already commented but still respectable I hope.

During that time I could not even begin to understand what being a prot warrior was like at all. Not because I didn’t care but because I had not yet become one. Even as a warrior who DPS’d I was not granted any special knowledge of the flip side of the coin as a prot warrior.

After about a year at 80 as a DPS our group needed a main tank so that we could begin to progress further into 10 mans and we were short of them.

Long story short it was a very bumpy road for our group and myself when I dressed and respec’d to fit the part. I was constantly losing aggro and people were repeatedly dying (myself included).

However our group is a very forgiving one and even toned things down a little while I got my sea legs learning to tank.

Over this time I beat myself up more then anyone else I encountered, both in our group, and the pugs that are famous for destroying a tank or healers learning curves.

I studied the best tanks on my server through the wow armory for talent tree builds and wow heroes for gear scoring and gemming. Each of these provided a slightly different window into what was needed by any tank trying to seriously get better and do so by not being handicapped by the simplist of mechanics.

Over time (about a month) my tanking improved but I was no where near some of the other tanks I encountered in pugs and through mutual friends who allowed me some insight into what it took to become a confident tank.

I discovered over time that there is a system that produces the best tank using the 3 C’s.

1.) Confidence
2.) Consistancy
3.) Consideration

These three C’s should be followed by all players who expect the best out of any tank they encounter, be it in a guild or in a pug. If everyone follows them a tank can learn quicker and be more effective for the group as a whole.

I was told by a friend of a friend who is one of the top tanks on my server (Ravencrest) after sharing with him that I was at a loss in understanding how I couldn’t hold aggro all the time and thus never allowing a trash mob or boss get away and run amok in the backfield.

He chucked and told me what he had learned by another tank who helped him out in his beginning stages.

He said all things being equal,

1.) If the tank dies its heals fault (Not always but 99.9% of the time.)
2.) If the heals dies its the tanks fault (Not always but 99.9% of the time.)
3.) If anyone else dies its their own damn fault. (Not always but 99.9% of the time.)

To all the up and coming tanks out there, I would only say stick to the 3 C’s. Don’t argue about who was at fault in a wipe situation just refocus and do your best at whatever stage of tanking you find yourself. Learning from mistakes made by yourself or others prepares you for the success of the future.

Be confident even when things might not look as if confidence is warranted on your part.

Be consistant in learning the skills that are necessary to improve as a tank and stay as committed as time allows to that goal. Read, read, read everything you can find that another tank has written about the subject of tanking as a prot warrrior. Listen to those who know what your going through and have been there themselves. Arguing back at a DPS’r or healer in a group or pug who have no clue what you do for a living in this game is simply spinning your wheels and going no where fast. It only hinders your goals and distracts you from performing at your best.

Be considerate to those who are clueless, struggling to understand, or trying to help.

Don’t allow the 3 B’s to invade your gaming even when others you encounter refuse to hold themselves to such high standards. Remember always you are the first in, the one who takes the most damage for everyone else, and the last out of every encounter. By necessity you are the leader, learn to be above the fray of fixing blame and seek to fix the problems encountered instead. That usually starts by saying something like “We’ll get it” at a wipe moment instead of partaking in the blame session going on around you.

Oh I almost forgot listing the 3 B’s. These are the things that no tank should ever sink to in any situation.

1.) Bashing (Going after or ridiculing anyone never changes what happened and can only make the next attempt tougher.)

2.) Barking (Don’t order people around, it only turns them off to what your trying to explain or share on a situation.)

3.) Boasting (You might be doing well, and if you are someone else will tell you so, don’t be or bring a superior attitude to a group or pug. Your next wipe is right around the corner….)

You are not DPS nor are you Heals… You are a tank…your leading from the front so act like it.

Good luck to all the tanks out there! May your sword and board be effective and swift.

<GT> Varangian
www.gamerstrust.org

I see a lot of Death Knight’s wondering the same things I did when I first started tanking, so I decided I would try and help you out without having to sift through a ton of useless information.

RUNEFORGING – There is really only 2 options here for tanking, Swordbreaker or Stoneskin. Swordbreaker gives 4% parry to a 2H weapon, while Stoneskin gives 25 defense (skill, not rating) and a 2% stamina boost. 25 defense skill translates into about 2% dodge, while the 2% stamina increase will vary how much hp it gives you depending on your gear.

When you first hit 80 and you are still gearing up to tank heroics and raids, you will want to use stoneskin. This makes hitting 535 defense (the heroic defense cap) and then 540 defense (the raid defense cap) that much easier to obtain as well as giving the extra hp boost. Once you have geared up and are at 565 defense you will have the option to change to swordbreaking. You will then have to consider what your current overall avoidance is (parry + dodge = overall avoidance) and your max hp raid buffed. Do you need more hp from the 2% stamina increase, or do you need 2% more avoidance.

I personally chose to keep stoneskin, as my unbuffed avoidance is at 47% but my max hp is only at 30k. In a melee encounter you will generally want to have more avoidance, but when tanking bosses like Hodir and Stormcaller Brundir who put out a lot of magic damage, you will need the highest hp pool you can get. This leads me into my next subject… Avoidance or HP?

AVOIDANCE Vs. HP – Both are equally important. It really depends on the encounter. Are you fighting Patchwerk or are you fighting Hodir? With Patch, you will want avoidance as you only need to have about 30k raid buffed hp and as long as healers keep you topped off, you will be ok. With Hodir, you will want the highest hp pool you can get.

This can be accomplished by swapping trinkets. You should have 2 stamina trinkets, and 2 avoidance trinkets, to maximize your flexability as a tank. You should still balance out your hp and your avoidance regardless. I wouldn’t recommend gemming all stamina, and I wouldn’t recommend gemming all avoidance either.

Another quick thing to remember: Our single target threat generation is based off our avoidance through “Rune Strike”. The less avoidance you have, the less threat you will be able to generate due to lack of Rune Strike’s.

SPEC- Well, this is everyone’s biggest question. Most DK’s will grab a cookie cutter frost tank spec and stick with it until something changes and they just grab another tanking cookie cutter spec. I tanked as Frost for awhile, and I have recently switched over to Blood to test it out. I’ll go over some of the strengths of each school right now.

Unholy- The only thing of value for tanking when you go deep into Unholy is Bone armor. I would not consider this a viable tanking spec in any way shape or form. Anticipation is a tier 1 talent and is a must for any tank spec.

Frost- Well, I would consider Frost spec the best AE tanking spec for DK’s. Frigid Dreadplate is another 3% dodge. As well as gaining Unbreakable Armor as another CD to reduce incoming damage. You also get Howling Blast which is amazing for maintaining AE aggro. Toughness is essential for any Tank spec as well.

Blood- Blade Barrier is awesome, and is a must for any tank spec. Bladed armor is also great. More AP = More DMG = More threat. Deeper in you get Vampric Blood and Mark of Blood. Both are amazing talents. You will have to be careful with what you use Mark of Blood on though, some bosses its more effective than others. AE’s take 1 charge per person it hits so bosses that AE a lot are going to each through you mark in about 10 seconds. For other fights such as “The Iron Council” in Ulduar, where you are required to tank Steelbreaker, it can be quite useful. Veteran of the Third war is also amazing, giving a 6% increase to both strength and stamina.

I am sure there are things I missed out on along the way, but there will be more to come. I hope I was able to answer some of the questions for Death Knights that were wondering some of the same things I did when I started tanking. Thank you.
Budlitenite

With all this new content to explore and explain, would I even think about making a new post about Vanilla WoW content?  Well, yes indeed I am!

Today I logged in to do my Argent Crusade, Fishing, Cooking and Jewelcrafting dailies but somehow got sidetracked by an old friend…. Onyxia.  I haven’t seen Onyxia in … well, years …  so I thought I would pay the old broad a visit.

I had heard whisperings of all sorts of folks soloing Onyxia, so I started to ponder if a prot warrior could solo Onyxia.  I knew that some sort of healing would be required, so I started tinkering with builds that included Bloodthirst.

I ended up going with this build.  I slapped in a Glyph of Bloodthirst, threw on my old 4 piece epic Illidan Fire Resist gear and headed out to Onyxia’s Lair to give it a whirl.  I had about 500 defense, 25k hp, and 200 fire resist.
Well, long story short, about 30ish minutes later, Onyxia lay dead at my feet, and I was clearing bag space for all the phat lewt.  In the end, it was was not all that challenging.  I never had any close calls, never got below 50% health, and only used enraged regeneration once during the transition from phase 2 to phase 3.  Next time around, I’ll likely drop some of the FR gear in favor of more DPS gear to make the fight shorter, assuming I actually ever do go solo Onyxia again!

The hardest part of the encounter was chasing Onyxia around during Phase 2 and meleeing her down.  For the most part, other than the intial group of whelps, I just ignored the whelps and let Thunder Clap kill them off when I had accumulated a few.

In the end, it was a bit of fun and an interesting diversion.  I will admit, it is a bit saddening to be able to take down a once end game boss with such ease.  Such is the way the game goes!

Ulduar and 3.1 have finally hit, and I know many of you are wondering how this is affecting the tanking abilities of death knights. One really good peice of news is that Unholy Blight and Gargolye have now switched places! This is good news for you non-unholy tanks because now you can have this amazing talent too. Another awesome change is that Blood Boil no longer requires diseases (however does bonus damage to diseased targets). This is great for when your Death and Decay is on cooldown. The biggest and most prominent change for myself is the new glyph. Glyph of Disease now refreshes ALL diseases on you target(s) when you use Pestilience!!!!!! This is a blessing from Blizzard. On the downside most of your tanking cooldowns have been increased by a minute. This is only a minor setback however, because your trinkets will more than compensate for this. The future looks bright for all you Death Knight tanks out there. Keep on being a meatshield and keep those squishies safe! And as always, tank hard or go home!

-Deathsmarch

So 3.1 is finally here and dual specs are all the rage!

To start out with, I took a full survival spec for Ulduar (5/14/52), and also took a UA spec (37/0/34) to try out. The servers were too unstable last night to try out either in a raid setting, but I’ll be looking forward to using both soon enough.

One thing I did do is head outside Orgrimmar to try out the UA spec in PVP. Let’s just say that UA >>>>>> melee. The UA spec made it almost trivial to utterly smash melee’s face into the ground. The absence of the mobility talents really hurt vs. casters. In the end, I didn’t take UA for PVP, I was just tinkering.

Nobody had the Glyph of Last Stand or Glyph of Vigilance as of yet, but I can’t wait to get my hands on them.
So what did you use as your secondary spec?