Warrior Tank Theory - Need some tips

[ceoran]

Hello,
 I've recently started playing a Warrior Tank here, and I have to say, it is not quite what I expected. I've tanked before in Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria as a warrior/druid and monk.

No AOE threat : So this bit sucks, The only useful method so far is Tab-Sunder ... I've tried switching stances and doing a ThunderClap but it didn't seem to do much threat.
  The Tab-Sunder works preety much OK untill you need to keep more than 3 targets on you (like the crazy pulls in Stratholme). Assuming that the party will attack only the marked mob when you pull, you only need to do one sunder at the start on each other mob just to keep them from flying to the healer.
  Here's the problem. If you need to keep a large bunch of mobs on you and some party members are hugging you it's very hard to see which mob turned away to them. Is there an addon that can show you, perhaps in the mob hp bar if they are targeting you or not ? I remember having one in retail that was very useful. Or something similar.

For boss fights I pretty much sunder till 5, add some shield slams and revenge, and keep my shield block up as often as possible.

Do you have a better way of approaching this matter? I'm open for any kind of ideas

Cheers

[Sethi84]

I am playing vanilla again since a few days, but what I can remember from the old vanilla days is just that what you are describing: sunder spam, fast target switching. Demo shout and thunderclap idd sucked back then for aggro, although for dmg reduction they are both ofc useable.

In my opinion the warrior tanking in vanilla wow was great, the role as tank was as active as it could be. Espessially indeed with instances like stratholme, fast switching and well deciding when to sunder which target, remembering your order while you got 9 mobs orso tagged, was quite challenging. I always set myself high goals, in general, and as a tank it was to hardly ever let others from even being hit, resulting in really awesome gameplay, espesially in situations that seem impossible to win. (bad pull accident)
How i miss that awesomeness :-).

Anyway sunder armor and revenge is your main friend for building the initial aggro in groups. I always focussed on sundering. First mob gets 2 sunders, then quickly sunder the others, then quickly back totarget 1 for the third sunder, then applying second sunder on the others, then building the sunders to maximum on target 1 (then sundering the rest to 5, followed by shield block, demo shout, thunderclap for dmg reduction). Sometimes you can purposely let aggro go of any mob other then the primary target, so you got more time to build aggro on the others. When the mob then almost reaches the casters or rangee, intercept and build aggro n him.
Basically if you keep calm and thus also the healer keeps calm, then any situation can be won. Only drawback is mana reserve of the healer in intense situations.

For single threat i'm not sure anymore what I did (was maintank quite some time for a progressive guild, therefore fully geared in tier 1). If I can remember I first use shield slam, put up 2 sunders, so dps can start right away without having ant aggro problems. Then use abilities that reduces incoming dmg so the healer can spare mana and only use spells that dont require mudh mana. (shield block, demo shout, thunderclap) Then you can choose. If revenge is ready, use revenge, if shield slam is off cooldown, use that. Followed bu wuickly building sunder to 5. Meanwhile keep using dmg reduce abilities, revenge procs etc. If you got everything on cooldown and got excessive rage, you can fil the rest with heroic strikes. A vanilla wow warrior has no way of losing aggro, espessially not on single targets, not even wih trigger happie dpsers.

Hope it helps.

 Oh btw, press V ingame. With v pressed youll see health bars above the mobs, it makes targeting and fast switching cake. No addons needed with that

[ceoran]

Thanks for your reply Sethi84, I use almost exactly what you mentioned right now , except thunder clap, I will include that in my rotations more often.

I know about pressing V, hehe , who doesn't, was thinking about a more advanced version that shows the bars differently if they target someone else.

[hashwarr]

Apart from sunder use sheild bash ,revenge ,sheild block , herioc strike,etc .shield bash generates huge amount of threat.

[Spot]

I like to Shield bash one mob, then switch to another and hit revenge if its up and sunder once..  Then I run at whatever got past me (Most likely on way to the healer already or some hot shot mage trying to top the damage meter)  And taunt sunder.  Then I sunder the first guy cuz that shield bash may had been forgotten by then.  Ya have to remind him about his whorish mother, and keep hitting him in the shins.  Be sure to make annoying sounds too.  They will have to kill you and ignore the group. 

Also, argue about weather captain Kirk or Picard is better with the mage.  Mages love Star Trek.  Pew pew.

[Asternob]

tanking in pre bc compared to expansions is really diffrent you have to forget everything you know about wotlk cata mop to even hold some aggro here is the method i used to use as OT in milenium
sunder 1st mob revenge 2nd hs 3rd sunder 4th after that start sundering the 2nd and 3rd mob keep an eye on the wlock/mage targets to make sure they dont overaggro and always prioritize mobs on healer over some hotshot dps that cant play
a tip i got from nachos - after you charge in thunderclap change stance to defensive and start that rotation
single target tanking rotation i used to use
as always there is the rule "no dps until 5 sunders" on pull youll have alot of rage so sunders and hs should be applied until 5 sunders are up once they are up use revenge then shield slam if you got alot of rage other than that hs is your main source of threat once you got 5 sunders up and always keep shield block up for revenge procs
edit: i learned a great thing from the glead of millenium before every pull go berserker stance > berserk rage > battle stance > charge > thunderclap > defensive stance <- multi mob pull great for having alot of rage
berserker stance > berserk rage > pull boss (to keep berserker rage up longer)>defensive stance and start tanking
bersker rage is used to get more rage that way you wont be rage starved at the start of encounters

[Buckle]

Just gonna throw out my 2 cents even tho its only semi relevant. Reroll pally, spec holy/reckoning! Equip some sort of awesome 2 hander, create a /sit macro lol <- i'm serious...  Run into piles of mobs and use consecration. Target them 1 by 1 and watch them get rick rolled... On bosses use /sit macro, rinse repeat *winning*

[Shaken]

I use Xperl. It shows target's target's target's. And melees Should always attack behind so seeing mobs turning shouldn't be a problem. I always start with sundering all mobs, taunting skull and shieldbashing it.

[ceoran]

Thank you all for the pearls of wisdom, I will try the techniques that you mentioned

[Arsa/Cosmar]

Lemme make it easy for you,call villie,get a OP healer like me,tell him to hellfire entire strath/scholo,win.

[Riui]

Hey Ceoran. It's Glasscannon. I'm the top shot mage that Spot mentioned. I prefer Picard.
/love

[ceoran]

Hey Ceoran. It's Glasscannon. I'm the top shot mage that Spot mentioned. I prefer Picard.
/love

I have to disagree, Damn it Jim I'm a tank not a doctor.

[Jackeast]

This is what makes Vanilla-tanking so challenging and fun

You prettymuch got the idea already.
Make sure you come early into the fight, creating threat on as much targets as possible. To start with, don't bother using Shield slam or Heroic strike, it will only burn your rage to fast, stay put with sunders or even better Revange. Revange should be used as often as possible, but keep in mind that it (arguably) creates more threat than 1 sunder, so it should be used on a target that does not already have a sunder, early out in the fight. Use taunt if you lack rage to grab all targets with skills.

Switch targets very often; Use skill on one target, switch target and repeat untill you maintain controll of all of them (as many as 7 targets).
You will also have to adapt to the scenario, following up the targets who are being most attacked by the dps, with extra threat-skills. If you already have a sunder on a mob, and it isn't being touched, you should rarly add extra threat to it and it should be put to low-priority, only adding threat to it to supply the threat from the healer, this depends on your and your healers gear.

Remember that if a dps with somwhat good gear wants to take aggro from you, or plays silly, it probably wont be possible to complete these steps, it is still teamwork after all. Therefore you priority is to defend the healer.


I'm not to fan of these ideas with changing stances and all, to me it has only caused trouble.