Newbie tank, experienced player

[jseymour84]

So I have been lurking on these forums for a while and I'll be damaged if I can't find some advice. I am an experienced WoW player (6/12 ICC as an Arcane Mage). Currently running cata heroics on my mage so I know the basics of the game.

The guild I started is not doing as well on recruiting as I had hoped so I am switching over to play a tank. Currently I have a level 21 Draenai Protection Warrior. I've tanked my way though Ragefire Chasm and Deadmines. For the most part the runs were successful but some problems I am having are knowing when someone else in my group has aggro, peeling mobs off of other people, and sometimes tab targeting does not work for me.

My rotation is basically Thunder Clap, tab through all mobs and Sunder Armor to 3x on each mob, then keep Thunder Clap on cool down. If there is a caster in the group then I keep the caster targeted and use my Shield Bash to interrupt spell casting.

My questions are:

1. How should I setup my interface to easily see who has aggro on what mobs?
2. What macros should I look at to make pulling mobs off other people easier?
3. Who are some of the top prot warriors here so I can view their Armory profiles to see what stats and gear I should be looking for?
4. Also are there any guides in the forum that I may have missed for prot warriors?

I know that as I level things will change but I would like to get my interface setup at level 21 as if I was main tanking raids. This way I can get used to it and when I hit end game there won't be as steep of a learning curve... hopefully.

Thanks in advance!

[Alent]

Tidyplates' threatplates will help on the targeting point. it's a V-bars mod that makes it easy to see what mobs aren't aggro to you. Then, well, you click on the vbar of said offending mob and taunt him in line.

[zewm]

Another mod you should look into getting is a raid/party frame mod such as Grid or Healbot. You can set it up to show you who in your party/raid currently has aggro and debuffs.

[nserafini]

1 - look in the UI forums here. This will give you an idea of how other tanks have their interface setup. While it might not match your play style , you'll find something to get you started. I use a modified version of Boda's. I think regardless you need tidy plates and it's modifier threat plates. Also are you using omen ?

2 - not so much macros as have buttons either hotkey'd or in an ease to hit area. Taunt, charge, intervene. Remember that some abilities like concussion blow stun, so if someone draws aggro, cb the target to stun it and regain aggro. Others may have macros, hope they will share.

3 - go into the crit guides section, look there as well the theory craft section and see who's talking tank.

4 - yes.

[jseymour84]

Thanks for the advice, I picked up TidyPlates, ThreatPlates and Grid2. Took me a while to figure out how to make the aggro alert to be actually visible instead of the tiny little square that shows but I found that once that was done I was able to quickly see who had aggro - not to mention finding several hunters who kept pulling additional mobs outside of the group I was tanking.

Thanks again for the help - I got plenty of reading to do again.