I can't seem to shake this Rage!

[EncoreMG]

I am brand new to tanking, in fact, I was forced into it. I know tanks can be awful, and can be the difference between success and a total wipe. I like to think I have the intelligence, ability, and simply cognitive awareness to know my role in a group where I am /the/ tank that I have to try to pick up all adds. As an off-tank, I've done reading about what I need to do, not take aggro from the Main Tank and so forth. I've not been in that predicament yet, but that's not my problem.

I am worried that I am not utilizing my rage efficiently. My group praised my first attempts at Main Tanking, and granted my gear is pretty poor. Anyhow, all I was doing was hitting Maul/Lacerate when 1v1, and when more than one mob engaged, I was of course Swiping/Lacerating my main target, and or issuing a Challenging Roar occasionally.

My rage rarely dipped below 70. I thought there were abilities that could rapidly drain rage... If there are, I am not using it or them.

Frenzied Regeneration dumps it off, but that is an out of combat ability.

Help!

[Ghladum]

There are only a handful of times when (as a warrior) I'm in low rage situations while tanking. Given that Druids typically generate even more rage than Warriors, I imagine you shouldn't feel too guilty about your full rage bar.

Back in BC, you could always tell good tanks from bad tanks by whether or not their rage bars were staying full or being used, and true infinite rage scenarios weren't all that common... which is nothing like even entry-level WOLK raids.

As long as you utilize what bonus threat/rage dumps you have available to you (I'm woefully ignorant of Feral abilities, heh) you're doing your job fine.

[Mammoth]

You will have plenty of situations when you have more rage coming in than you can spend. It's not a bad thing, simply cue up Maul everytime. I'm not sure if you just gave an abbreviated example of you rotation but you should be using Mangle everytime it's off cooldown in a 1v1 situation along with FFF, Lacerate, and Swipe.

And Frenzied Regeneration can most definitely be used in combat; it's a fantastic tool when you need that extra healing.

[Wyleai]

Welcome to Wrath tanking.

To 'equalize' tanks, the rage based tanks have basically been given infinite supplies of the stuff. I have Heroic Strike macro'd into everything but the summoning of my mini-pets, and I still can't burn rage faster than I get it.

The only downside you will face is that DPS will take one look at your bar and start saying 'go, go, go' in chat even if your healer has an empty mana bar. But you can train them against this once you start working with the same people over and over again.