The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Cataclysm tanking, part 2
by Matthew Rossi 
Mar 26th 2011 at 9:00PM
Last week we talked about tanking etiquette and how you can deal with the heightened stress of tanking an instance without convincing your run that your brother is actor Emilio Estevez. This week, we're going to talk about how you, as a new or returning warrior, can learn how to tank.
I've been playing warriors for a long time now. Right now, I have three 85 warriors that I'm working on, for DPS, tanking, and PvP. This means to some degree I'm in a constant state of relearning the class. In addition, I'm leveling a druid, DK, and paladin for tanking purposes as well, because I think it does help you as a warrior tank to see how other classes tank. (So far, my perspective is that paladins and DKs are brokenly good and druids need a little work. I don't pretend this is unbiased.) The first and best advice I can give someone who wants to learn to tank is, go out and tank things. While this is akin to the old teaching people to swim via throwing them in deep water approach to swimming, it has several advantages.
Read Cataclysm tanking, part 1.
Don't drown
- First off, there really is absolutely no better way to get an understanding of threat and threat mechanics than to get experience tanking in an instance. Sure, you can read about it (sometimes in great detail), but in the end, I'm very much a proponent of hands-on experience.
- Tanking a run gets you used to making pulls and gives you an understanding of how mobs react when pulled. All the little tricks you'll learn in a few runs as a tank are things that are very hard for anyone to teach you. For instance, Battle Shout or Commanding Shout are often best used after a pull, especially a ranged or LoS pull where you're trying to get mobs to come around a corner, since the shout generates rage and that gives you initial aggro. I can tell you this, but the first time you do it and it works, you'll remember it far more than just reading it here.
- Situational awareness is learned. What I mean here is, it's much harder to explain to someone who has never tanked the mindset a tank develops, where you find yourself scanning the whole battlefield while tanking. You'll watch your own health and cooldowns, watch the mobs, watch your healers to make sure there's nothing on them, even watch the DPS to see if one of them is in trouble, switch back to the mobs to see if any are casting something that needs interrupting. Tank awareness is far less focused than DPS or healer awareness; you essentially learn a very specific form of multitasking. This is far, far easier to learn in a run.
- Tanking is actually a series of responsibilities, and it's much easier to learn how to coordinate all of them by doing. Tanking involves generating threat (which is done much like DPSing, really; you hit things and use various abilities on them) while also staying alive, controlling pulls, getting in and out of specific spots on the floor, etc., etc.
- You'll never develop your tank voice if you don't tank. Tank voice doesn't need to literally mean spoken words; it's more of an assertion of control that gives the group a sense of confidence in you. Whether you're a calm, assured tank or a tightly wound ball of resentment pointed at the enemy, you need the group to be willing to roll along with you.
Okay, this is all fine and dandy, but where do we go to pick these things up, especially now? There are quite a few options, be you a neophyte warrior just leveling up or a long-time DPS warrior trying out tanking for the first time.
One place to start off tanking is Alterac Valley. Yes, Alterac Valley. Why do I suggest tanking in AV? Well, because AV has plenty of opportunity to do so for a battleground without the pressure of having to be the focus of the group the way a dungeon or raid can. With the ability to queue for AV starting at level 45, you can get started fairly early and work on the starting basics on the Captains (Stonehearth and Galvanger) and work up to tanking Warmasters and the Generals. I don't consider AV to be real tanking, mind you -- but if you've never tanked, it's a fairly painless way to stick your toe into it.
Finding a dungeon has never been easier
Once you're fairly comfortable with the idea of tanking, we'd be fools to avoid using the dungeon finder. Frankly, it's never been easier to level as a tank, with the LFD tool available from level 15 on and with talent specializations available at level 10 that make a low-level warrior feel more like a tank than was the case before Cataclysm. Even if you've been playing a warrior since launch and have never tanked, or tanked regularly but took time off after Wrath and are just now getting back into the game, the LFD tool can definitely help you ease into the tanking role -- keeping in mind all those points we made last week, of course.
This isn't to say you must start off pugging. If you have access to a group of friends (be they guildies, RL friends, in-game friends from various sources, etc., etc.), there's no reason not to make use of them to help acclimate yourself to tanking. Frankly, the benefit of a run with people you know is they're usually willing to be patient with you. Furthermore, if you have a friend who tanks a lot on one character or another and you know said friend is a good player, ask him or her to come along in a DPS/healing capacity and give you pointers. (Note to DPSers who have tanks: This doesn't mean you should be second guessing the heck out of the poor tank. Be a resource if/when you're asked.)
Do not fear the PuG
However, don't be afraid of PuGs. They're not always going to be awesome experiences, true, but if you're receptive, you can learn a lot from them. Even an awful group that wipes constantly because they won't listen, aren't geared enough, or try to pull while you're still tanking the last pull can be viewed as a learning experience. Always take the time to analyze your own performance after a wipe, even if it wasn't your fault. Could you have reacted faster once things went pear-shaped? Should you have been saving Shockwave for those adds? Would a well-timed Heroic Leap have saved your healer? Often, tanking isn't about who made the mistake so much as it's about you and the group fixing it.
Refusing to die is a viable strategy
Finally, I'm going to suggest general PvPing in prot spec in other battlegrounds besides AV. Why? Well, it won't teach you squat about holding aggro, no. But that's what runs with friends and PuGs and so on are for. Battlegrounds PvP is more about teaching yourself to use all of your toolkit to stay alive as long as possible, paying attention to as many things as you can. In PvP, people are trying to kill you, and nothing teaches you exactly how to use your defensive and survivability cooldowns quite like someone trying to make you dead. A few weeks of PvP will really help you with figuring out how to get used to situational but awesome abilities like Intervene and Spell Reflect, too. And prot warriors can be awesome for flag defense or carrying, so BGs like WSG and Twin Peaks are excellent places to hone your skills.
It's not just about learning to use your cooldowns proactively, although that's a big part of it; it's also about learning to scan the battlefield. Developing that sense of PvP paranoia can significantly help you in PvE content, since a brain trained to scan for danger constantly is far more likely to notice stuff on the floor you shouldn't stand in or a mob peeling.
Next week, we'll talk about hit and expertise and how they could be made more attractive for tanking warriors.
At the center of the dury of battle stand the warriors: protection, arms and fury. Check out more strategies and tips especially for warriors, including Cataclysm 101 for DPS warriors, a guide to new reputation gear for warriors, and a look back at six years of warrior trends. Filed under: Warrior, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Heroblade13 Mar 26th 2011 9:45PM
I learned to tank normally, but I learned how to survive while tanking in pvp, good read =D
Heroblade13 Mar 26th 2011 9:58PM
slow day today? Guess no one likes to tank anymore =\
moonblaze Mar 26th 2011 10:12PM
A good tutorial on learning how to tank is also to level as a tank. The advantage of leveling as a tank is that you get used to each ability before learning a new one. When you level as a damage dealer and first begin tanking at level 85, you often end up with a whole set of different abilities in a role you've never practiced before.
Low level dungeons are also much more forgiving and a good teacher on different aspects of tanking:
- Prioritizing kill orders: Such as monsters with dangerous abilities.
- Line of sight pulling: Like casters that stay at range and begin to nuke your healer instead, you learn to do this as replacement for the lack of ranged interrupts.
- Damage mitigation and pull speed: how many packs can you handle and how long does it take for the healer to recover from a big pull.
And more importantly, it teaches you how to deal with pugs. Low level dungeons are designed so that you can get through the dungeon even if there are some players in the group doing a very mediocre job. This gives you a very good idea of what to expect from pug tanking and teaches you what to watch for in a group.
Sleutel Mar 27th 2011 9:31AM
IMO, people would be much better players if they would level (at least in dungeons) as the role they intend to play at max level. Too many people who plan to tank or heal level as DPS because it's "easier," only to have no clue what they're doing when they get to the level cap and try to hop straight into content designed for that level.
Nothing gives you insight into the tools of your class for the role you want to play like learning them gradually along the way. Having them all dumped into your lap at once can be very overwhelming.
Schadow Mar 27th 2011 3:33PM
I agree to a point, but saying "the best way to learn to tank is to level as a tank" doesn't help max-level people who are interested in tanking.
If you are max level and want to learn tanking, queue for Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns normal runs. You will outgear the content and the rest of the group by a wide margin, so threat and survivability won't be problems. All you have to focus on is using your tools.
Then work your way up through the harder ones until you reckon you can handle heroics.
Along the way, pretend you are running the heroic version, and that any stray mob would kill whoever it's on. This will give you a sense of how well you could handle the situation if it was a heroic.
Practice target marking. It's silly for an 85 warrior tank to be marking targets in a lvl 80 normal, but at the very least get used to making a kill order. DPS are practically incapable of targeting your target, and choose their next target at random (not limiting it to the current group). They understand skull and X, however, so if you put those out there they might behave.
It doesn't matter in your practice norms, but it will as you start heroics, so it's a good habit to have.
If you have a really gung-ho DPS who opens with his highest damage/threat ability always, assign him a CC target and ask him to CC after you pull. This gives you at least one more GCD to establish threat and get the group under control. Think of it as CCing the DPS, not the mob.
Same goes for people who can't stop their AoE threat. If you have a party of 5 and a cleave that hits up to 3 things, CC two of them so that the AoE doesn't overtake your threat. CC is not always about limiting the damage you take as much as it is about keeping a leash on your DPS.
Katherine Mar 27th 2011 4:30PM
That doesn't really help those of us who levelled a hybrid a long time ago and never thought we'd be tanking with it. My paladin was always ret/holy, but after dabbling in warriors and druids at low levels I read something that said paladins were EZ mode tanks (in wrath anyway). I thought that might be an easier place to start, especially since all the dungeon finder groups I encountered at low levels didn't really let me tank. They were super impatient and wanted me to pull multiple groups without giving me any engouragement or information on how many groups I could handle. I certainly didn't know, and wasn't too keen to push my limits with a group that would likely get mad if I didn't know that 2 packs is the right amount and 3 is a wipe, or whatever. So I'd get healers leaving, dpsing, pulling packs for me, all the dps pulling for me while I was looting...
The low level dungeon finder isn't a fantastic place to learn to tank I don't think.
Schadow Mar 28th 2011 1:21AM
@Katherine
Welcome to tanking. DPS are often rude and obnoxious with a healthy sense of entitlement. They are also annoyed because it took them a 45 minutes to get the run, and they are going to take it out on you.
The real impediment to people learning to tank are the very people screaming for more tanks.
I would like to say it gets better, but I have those same idiots in heroics, along with several other kinds up to and including the full-heroic-geared DPS who want to show that they apparently managed to go through all that raiding without any understanding whatsoever of vengeance mechanics.
Tanking requires a thick skin as well as armour.
Blayze Mar 26th 2011 10:26PM
After a year or so away from the game, I relearned both my class and how to tank by going up against a Paladin in Naxx for threat. Since this was before the Second Great Nomalisation, I had to work to get and keep single mobs on me and was placed on boss duty as my class was a liability.
As a result, I learned the value of hate-tanking.
Szass Mar 26th 2011 11:20PM
Tanking is easy.
Even now when all the bosses have 30 different attacks and effects, Tanking is easy.
If you have some gear and can move out of circles at your feet and know where your taunt keybind is, anyone can tank.
Being the tank means doing things at your own pace.It means you are always in the right place even when you are not. You have a bit more control of the situation.
If you have a desire to tank and have never tried. GO DO IT.
And practicing in PVP BG's where no one cares if you are good or bad is an awesome idea.
Another practice idea is to go solo dungeons you completely out level.
Doing RFC at L40 solo to practice pulling and seeing what different mobs do will help you get into the swing of things.
Tanking is easy.
Szass Mar 26th 2011 11:31PM
RE: Solo tanking low level dungeons.
You may have to tone down your weapon, use a vendor weapon or remove some of your gear so that you do not kill the low level mobs in one hit.
The idea is to see how they react and to work on your positioning and use a few abilities on them before they die.This way you start getting used to a rotation. Don't just go in there and one shot everything in sight.
Go and pretend you are setting the mobs up for the rest of your (non existent) group.
bldavis59 Mar 26th 2011 11:43PM
ill admit, i first started tanking as a pally in wrath
but now 2 of my 4 85s are my warrior and druid, both tanking mainspec
AV can teach you SO much about being a tank, and can teach you the fun and crazy art of threat generation. no one goes as nuts as a bunch of PVP'ers trying to base race the opposite faction before you are all wiped out by the defenders
if you are just starting out as a tank, i strongly suggest you take advantage of LFD
low level dungeons are a cakewalk, esp as a warrior
shield slam at 10? WHERE WAS THAT WHEN I LEVELED??????
all you have to do is go up to the mob, hit him with that, and your golden...
at least for a few seconds (basically until anything dies except a boss at the lower levels)
the great thing about being a tank, is most of what you learn will carry over to your other tanking classes if you play them.
majority of being a good tank is just situation awareness, or as Mr.Rossi put, being able to do that special kind of multi-tasking.
get that down and you can play any tank out there.
the only other thing i want to add is if you are going to tank, for the love of god, pls learn how to and do your research.
the worst thing in the world (of warcraft) is a arms/fury warrior that is sick of the long que as dps, buys a shield and a 1hder, and thinks they are a tank.
a tank is more than just being a meat-shield. tanking is a state of mind, a calling, not just something that you decide to do on a whim.
Rob Mar 27th 2011 12:25AM
This is all true, however there is such a steep learning curve. Lveel 1-60 is no problem. You absolutely do not need a tank for this. Level 60 to 70 gets pretty tough, with many challenging pulls. 70-80 is easier again. THen 80-85 its a bit harder, much like BC. Then heroic 85s. And well. Yeah. You will die and quickly, and everyone will hate you and call you names. That's pretty much the LFD experience right there. Its not the game, tis the people.
Sitmek Mar 27th 2011 3:05AM
Tanking really isn't too difficult as long as the rest of the party doesn't go out of their way to make it harder than it should be. If you haven't tried tanking and want to try it GO FOR IT. I also think that everyone should tank and heal at least a few dungeons because it will give you a much better idea of what the tank is actually doing and how you might be making it harder than it should be (and maybe be a little easier on the tank next time something goes wrong)
Also, off subject, nothing ruins Warrior tier 11 than seeing it on a Blood Elf.
K_sopko Mar 27th 2011 4:11AM
I like your suggestion of PvP. I honestly believe that whatever the class/role/spec you're playing, nothing teaches you how to play your character like PvP. It teaches you to think on your toes, how to utilize your entire toolbox. even abilities you might never use in PvE for your given spec/role. In PvE, everything is generally a planned out routine. This boss does this every x seconds, react with this spell. In PvP, it's ever changing, and being forced to adapt or die is quite helpful to learn, as well as loads of fun.
ricardopereyradelcastillo Mar 27th 2011 9:48AM
Excelent post, as usual, I eagerly await your weekly column, it's fun and informative even for a lvl 85 tank (that still has to learn a lot of tricks, though). I'm looking forward to your next week column, as I am struggling with the hit/expertise issue now, and how to balance the avoidance with the threat.
Updated info on how dodge/parry dimisihing returns work would be awesome too, as I have found extremely hard to work out how that works, and how it interacts now with mastery.
Zinn Mar 27th 2011 9:52AM
"So far, my perspective is that paladins and DKs are brokenly good and druids need a little work. "
As one who currently tanks with all tank classes, I couldn't agree more. I used to enjoy the fact that warrior tanking was somewhat of the underdog in Wrath, and less faceroll than for example paladin. Dks had their problems too what with runes being rather unforgiving and druids... well they're always behind. But in Cataclysm, warriors are just lacking too much - we have no threat cooldown, no aoe threat (not when compared to paladins and dks), no ranged threat, and no utility skills (I hardly count Vigilance). Druids have the same problems basically. Tanking on my paladin and dk is yawningly simple, not to mention I hardly need a healer for most heroic bosses. In contrast everything seems to be a struggle with my warrior, and the slightest misspull turns into a catastrophe, this even though I've warrior tanked since early BC.
Sorry, I'm nerdraging off topic here. But right now I wouldn't recommend anyone to start tanking with a warrior.
rkaliski Mar 28th 2011 2:00AM
I've walked from warrior tanking because of the endless changes made to it just because some warrior facerolled a mage in AV a few times, or even worse in arena. I might come back if Bliz stops trying to balance its favorite son PVP arena on the backs of the PvE.
One thing the tank can suggest to the CCers is to time their sheep or whatever so that the mobs CCed will be as far from the rest of the pack being DPSed. Nothing is worse than having them wait till the whole pack is almost on top of the group to pop off the CCs and it takes shockwave and thunderclap away from you until you can manuver the pack to a safe distance. Too many CCers can't judge the max distance of their spell or even how long it takes to go off. At least with rogues if they mess up they will pay personally for their mistake.
Farnoth Mar 28th 2011 12:53AM
Learn to tank as a Warrior or Druid and you'll know what it is to feel a lot of painful wipes. The thing is, learning to do so with the 'hard' class means you'll be able to not only do the other faceroll-easy classes with no problem, but you'll have more awareness, more sense of proper CD usage, and a better understanding of how to keep mobs in line.
As for warriors not having AoE, we are lacking, but, we can spec and glyph to do such things as make our charge stun additional targets, to make revenge and devastate hit additional targets, the Blood and Thunder talent is great for squeezing out additional threat. We have an AoE taunt; albeit on a 'long' CD. We can use cleave, we can use heroic leap, we have the ability to taunt when ever someone gets hit (Yes, I liked the old vigilance better, but the new one is still a great too). We also have an AoE stun (fear if unglyphed, but any PvE tank would glyph their Intimidating Shout).
We have more mobility than any other class right now with charge, Intervene, heroic leap, stance-dancing gives us Intercept, and if playing a goblin you also get your rocket jump.
We can get around better than any class, especially after the 'Great Druid Nerf' a while back. This makes up for a 'lack of AoE threat' since we can get to any enemy or party member with an issue.
Warrior tanking isn't the easiest, but don't undermine it.
Stilhelm Mar 27th 2011 11:28AM
I would agree, warrior tanking is a bit lacking at the moment. Warriors can get the job done, no question about that, but you have to work a *lot* harder with a warrior than a paladin.
Even the initial pull is so much simpler on the pally. On the warrior, the initial pull on a heroics boss is along the lines popping shield block while charging in, and hoping your shield slam lands, and if it doesn't watch the mob go flying off toward some dps that actually did hit it. With the pally, you simply divine plea for 3 HP, pop wings, toss your shield and a judgement while running in, and then probably land a 3hp shield of the righteous crit for 25k+. Even if your SotR misses, though, you didn't need any expertise to land the flying shield and judgment.
AoE tanking, on the warrior you have Thunderclap on a 6-sec cooldown, and it hits like a wet noodle, and Shockwave, which does some damage, on a 20-sec cooldown. So off the start of the pull, if dps gives you a bit, you can get the mobs gathered up. Pallies, however, have Hammer of the Righteous on a 4.5 sec CD, which hits a *lot* harder than Thunderclap. Plus, since AoE pulls usually aren't more than 4 mobs at a time, you have your Avenger's Shield hitting 3 of them for huge damage every 8 seconds or so due to cooldown resets.
Also, if I try to kill some random quest mob in as prot on my warrior, it is unbelievable how long it takes compared to the prot paladin.
I do like warrior tanking, but if I'm feeling lazy I will always run the paladin.
Zinn Mar 27th 2011 11:48AM
It is common to interpret "A is worse than B" as meaning the same as "A sucks". This is not what I mean. There are alot of things about warrior that are good, and I've stuck with the class for 3 expansions for a reason. I am talking about comparison - in terms of simplicity and the feel that you have the tools that will do the work, warriors don't come close to paladins right now. That doesn't mean that warriors suck, just that the tank classes are quite unfairly designed with most of the juicy stuff over in the paladin corner. Like I said, I used to enjoy the fact that warrior tanking was slightly trickier, because the paladin simplicity was boring. With skills you could still pull off some nice tricks, which I felt lacked with paladin tanking. Either way you rolled your face was basically a win as a paladin (and still is). Right now however, I feel like not only do I have to struggle 10 times harder as a warrior, it just doesn't pay off enough to be worth it.