Help a Newb Tank with Uldaman!

[Krumgork]

Greetings fellow Warriors,

I've been playing a warrior now for like a year but haven't done hardly any tanking! In fact, I'm only level 40 - just dinged it last night. I've had some issues with rerolling and never being able to decide on warrior or paladin. Now that I've made a new year's resoloution to play a warrior to 70 here I am.

Now I'm in Uldaman in a PUG. They want me to tank and it's kindof what I do so I agree. I've never even stepped foot in Uldaman before! I do some pulls and manage to keep everyone safe. Then like 15 little non-elite earthen run at us. There's two giant golem guys running around that are elites. Things that are smelly are hitting the fan! Bottom line: we wiped.

What am I to do!?! The party was a prot paladin (he was using a two-hander to help me learn to tank), a holy priest, a fire mage, a dual-wielding shaman, and me.

Someone told me that if you spam your shouts it will continue to build aggro on the mobs even after they've been affected. I tried that - just to keep the mobs. Then, I was also spamming Thunderclap and popping sunders on the elites to make sure they didn't go anywhere. Eventually, the shaman pulled aggro and then ran. I followed and lost control of the battle. I didn't know who was doing what and what mobs were killing who. More and more mobs left me as the healer cast heals. She got silenced, I got knocked down, we wiped.

What do I do in that situation? There's a lot of mass mob pulls there. Should I have just tanked the elites and let the others sort out the non-elites? Wouldn't the healer pull aggro on the non-elites while the other party members are sorting things out and I hold the elites?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Shortypop]

Welcome to the world of tanking :) I guess the short answer to your question goes something like this: it depends on the group.

Long answer: for that group make-up i would have mainly tanked the two elites - they will kill squishies far quicker than the non-elites; requested that everyone wait for at least one thunderclap - though it only hits 4 mobs; asked the pally to consecrate and for all dps to focus on the non-elites. As for dps pulling agro and running /cry - you'll fight this to 70 and beyond. My general rule is if they pull, they tank :) However it depends what he pulled - if it was a non-elite that should be no problem and you'll lose any control you had over the fight by turning and trying to help out; if it was an elite - that is more of a problem. Basically ask them if they pull agro to bring the mob back to you. The "you pull, you tank" strategy doesn't apply to healers and priests are very squishy and should be protected vigilantly.

With an understanding party the best you can do is be honest and flattering: "multimob tanking is hard for warriors, but if I keep the elites off you, you have the dps to kill the non-elites very quick".

You don't say your spec, but if you plan on tanking a fair number of instances enough points in prot to give you defiance will help your agro.

Other than that it's wipe and learn. Hope this helped.

[Narshe]

Aren't 15 mobs too much? Apart from scorpids I can't remember a single pull in Uldaman with more than 6 mobs :S

[Leytur]

I'm thinking of the room with all those golem elites and non-elites and one boss who's a real PITA. . . I can't think of his name though. . . he doesn't have a name just a title. . . Ancient Stone something maybe. . . anyways it's very easy in that room to end up with more than one pull if you aren't careful. So while one pull may only have 5 mobs, it's very easy to end up with 3 pulls thus 15 mobs.

[Blackheathen]

Those kind of pulls are definitely the ones that give me the most trouble. What my group has found is that
a) Bombs are awesome at gaining initial aggro (Engineering FTW)
b) War tanks the elites only, whilst keeping an eye on the healer obviously. Challenging shout.
c)Any targeted DPS focus on the white casters
d)Anything else should go down fast with AOE.
e)Be patient, wait for patrols and bring them back to a safe spot to fight. Even if it means having the group stay way back and bringing them back around a corner.
f)The mobs at the back either side of the Ancient stone Keeper are linked. If you wait for him to move back you can stand in the middle, just below the step, and pull them without aggroing the Boss.
g)Once all clear, keep an eye out for patrols as usual and then take the boss out by themself.
h)Priest can use fade which should give the DPS enough time to get rid of the trash.