[AxLxExX]

So i don't know what to do. I'm a prot warrior that has entry level heroic gear, aka, no heroic gear, but gear to be able to start heroics. My problem is that, as a new 70 warrior I don't have the gear to run most of the instances with the gear I need. However, when i do get in a group for Sp or Mech, the group decides that I'm undergeared and leaves. How can I get gear when no one will run with me? I don't know what to do...

[madocks]

are you guilded?

get one of the better kitted tanks to run u thru heroic mech etc - spec dps if u need too?

get the guild to work with you, they appreciate your underkitted and are trying your best

Give us an armory link

[AxLxExX]

The World of Warcraft Armory

I'm DPS right now.

[Dunmail]

As above, only I'd try and get a KZ OT role with an experienced tank and hoover up spare items and a hefty badge haul towards the 'welfare epix' side, many of which such as the neck & bracers will last you into BT.

You do need to maximise what you have - ungemmed helmets & unenchanted helms won't persuade Pugs to remain with you. Use the dailys and that mining to fund gearing (bracers of green fortress, khorium tank gun etc are purchaseable. Farm SSO rep for a cheap weapon/neck and shield, ogrila for an even cheaper stop gap if need be. Generally follow the gearing for KZ guide as kz entry level and comfortable heroic level are pretty similar, a basic 12k hps, 12k ac will do, followed by working on the avoidance side. The bulk of that can be gained through normal instances and chains and if you can't buy it, rep farm it.

[kolben]

My suggestion won't be cheap, but it's doable.

It you are a Blacksmith, make [item]Red Havoc Boots[/item], and [item]Blazefury[/item].
Get SSO exalted, and pick up that shield. You could get a couple pieces of S2, the armor and stamina on them is pretty nice actually, and they will tide you over until you get real tank drops. If you decide to buy the S2 shield that will last you until MH most likely.

I agree with the comments on finding a KZ group you can squeeze into as an OT. Also, focus on some of the easier heroics for an undergeared tank. Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Mana Tombs, Slave Pens.

When I first started doing heroics (march 2007), I was in all blues except for my [item]fireguard[/item], and [item]Crest of the Sha'tar[/item]. Heroics are very doable in dungeon blues, I assure you.

We have a terrible horrible rogue in our guild that has all the badge gear, the best crafted items, and S3. Going purely off his gear you would think he was an ace rogue. This kid will break any CC you put within 100 yards of him, noob die at every opportunity, or do something stupid and totally unexpected at the worst time. I'd have gkicked him ages ago, but he's friends with a couple of our "keepers". Point is, don't let scrubs disguised in epics tell you what you can and can't do. The game has a lot of over-geared noobs running around at the moment who haven't saved enough badges to buy a clue.

[Kazeyonoma]

Moved to General forum.

[protonly]

Maybe only try and run heroic dailys? Those will 1) give extra badges 2) have gold to cover reparis and 3) have more people wanting to run them. Only other ideas I have are ones that were already said: guild/friend runs as an OT. You can find people to have the patience with a gearing-up tank but it can be hard. They really are out there and often have prot warriors who understand something called "patience."

I found that it was easier to pug kara as an OT with over geared players than pugging heroics when I started out gearing up (and this was with gear that was 490 def 12k hp, 11k armor).

[AxLxExX]

So the general idea is that I should start trying to get an OT spot in kara groups and taking whatever tank drops I can?

[Jasra]

Source: AxLxExX So the general idea is that I should start trying to get an OT spot in kara groups and taking whatever tank drops I can?

Just go any way you can. Badges buy armor, and even if you don't get first pick, there's usually something nice for a tank getting sharded on any clear.

[Foolishness]

Personally, if someone isn't geared i wont want to run heroics with them. Not because the gear makes them better, but because in accumulating gear they become better.

theres plenty of crafted, rep and quest reward items that you can get to make yourself look more appealing. make sure everything is enchanted fully and gemmed with 'rare' quality gems.

If you look like you're dedicated more people will want to play with you. Any new level 70 tank needs to learn to tank by grinding rep in 'normal' instances and leading their own parties.

If you become some offtank chump in karazhan your tanking skills and initiative will not improve at any decent rate. You need to cut your teeth some more before people will gamble their time to play with you. I don't mean to sound negative, but as a new level 70 warrior, you have much learning ahead of you and theres no shortcuts. I have played with 'new' tanks who have been geared up within a month or two from clearing kara and ssc/tk, and i still wouldn't dare to run a heroic with them because i know they have no proper 5 man experience.

its going to cost a lot of gold, time and practice

PS. i re read your post and notice you mention 'getting into groups'.

Warriors don't get into groups.

Warriors make the group. No one (who doesn't like dying) wants to play with a warrior who is not confident enough to make their own group. Its a flashing red 'noob' siren when a warrior doesn't want to lead the group. Of course, you are actually new so thats not so much of a bad thing, but i think its better to lead groups of other new people at this stage, then try to join a heroic badge farming run.

Finally, i think playing with bad pugs is a great way to improve. The tank is the person who is control of the fight. If your group is pro, its going to make it easy for you, you wont learn as much. It doesn't take much skill to beat an instance with 4 people who know what they are doing. Finishing instances with 4 clowns takes a much better player and will teach you a lot more. Nothing makes a tank work harder than idiots who don't know how to play.

[Tenraiel]

Source: Foolishness make sure everything is enchanted fully and gemmed with 'rare' quality gems. ... If you look like you're dedicated more people will want to play with you. Any new level 70 tank needs to learn to tank by grinding rep in 'normal' instances ... If you become some offtank chump in karazhan your tanking skills and initiative will not improve at any decent rate. ... I don't mean to sound negative, but as a new level 70 warrior, you have much learning ahead of you and theres no shortcuts. ... its going to cost a lot of gold, time and practice

^This

Take pride in what you do. Gem/enchant your gear, show that you care about your toon. Very few people will run from a heroic because a tank is in blues. Very few people will stay in a heroic with a tank who hasn't taken time to gem/enchant their gear.

And whatever you do, do yourself a favor and wipe in 5mans. You WILL improve. Gear is important, but a foundation for great tanking is what you really should be striving to receive. 5 mans teach situational awareness, rage management, aoe tanking, threat management; they provide good opportunities to learn when OH CRAP buttons should be used, and when they should be saved. Most heroics are harder than most raid content.

OT'ing Kara is a great way to help improve your characters gear, but do not become one of the new breed of scrub tanks who want an easy ride. Tanking is not easy - and that is why after your hard work at learning your class, you will find it far more rewarding. And because it's not easy, becoming distinguishable from the masses of lazy tanks is a very simple task. A good tank fosters fierce loyalty and you will find that grouping becomes a breeze.

[Dunmail]

Source: Tenraiel And whatever you do, do yourself a favor and wipe in 5mans. You WILL improve. Gear is important, but a foundation for great tanking is what you really should be striving to receive. 5 mans teach situational awareness, rage management, aoe tanking, threat management; they provide good opportunities to learn when OH CRAP buttons should be used, and when they should be saved. Most heroics are harder than most raid content.

This is kinda what I meant with KZ OT in addition to the gear. The part where you pay attention to the pulls, and once you have the experience there, the part where you let the tank pull, and watch out for which ever brain dead cretin screws up and pulls something they shouldn't so you can react as it happens, rather than trying to save a wipe with various fatalities. Room by curator is one example as I continually had DPS pulling other packs. That experience is then invaluable when you do go there as MT.

The 5 man above covers the one thing you cannot buy - the experience and awareness, especially with heroics having nastier aggro mechanics. The one I would suggest is botanica as it is a very good badge haul, only boss 3 is particuarly nasty, and you can do it earlier with a bit of CC. A mage and a warlock will easily get you through it, with better gear you can do without them later. But as mentioned above it teaches you where to position yourself, how to pull, and how to deal with the various aspects of tanking - aggro wipes (boss 3), multi tanking packs, mobs with respawns, boss phase changes and so on. This part will be more important than the gear as it will generate the friends list, people you can request to join you, pushiness to get things done as you want, and the badges to gear it.

[AxLxExX]

i like how people are talking about me like I bought my character. I've tanked 1-70. I've whiped hundreds of times, in every instance, on almost all the pulls. I'm a competent tank who can't do anything because of a lack of gear.

I ran Kara for the first time ever last night as an OT, and it was possibly the worst run ever, in any group. I learned Netherspite Chess and Prince, but I didn't get any gear and suffered 50+ gold in repairs. Not one of the deaths was my fault, most of them were lack of communication or stupid mistakes by the MT or others. I did what I was told and moved where I was supposed to.

The plan is I'm going to keep trying at heroics, run with my guild, and OT kara. Sound good?

[Kazeyonoma]

that's a great idea, even if drops don't go your way, the badges you collect will shoot your gear through the roof. check out The Badge Pick Order: 2.4 Edition - Warriors - TankingTips.com

It'll help you decide which pieces to grab.

[kolben]

Source: AxLxExX i like how people are talking about me like I bought my character. I've tanked 1-70. I've whiped hundreds of times, in every instance, on almost all the pulls. I'm a competent tank who can't do anything because of a lack of gear. I ran Kara for the first time ever last night as an OT, and it was possibly the worst run ever, in any group. I learned Netherspite Chess and Prince, but I didn't get any gear and suffered 50+ gold in repairs. Not one of the deaths was my fault, most of them were lack of communication or stupid mistakes by the MT or others. I did what I was told and moved where I was supposed to. The plan is I'm going to keep trying at heroics, run with my guild, and OT kara. Sound good?

If your guild is anything like mine, there are always people on who want to run heroics, and tanks that want to vomit at the thought of running most of those places again for the 45thousandmillionth time. Take advantage of that, and go tank the guild groups. If you were in my guild, i'd make them take you lol.

The game is different for you than it was for me when I hit 70. The typical person just did not have epics coming out of their orifices at that time, even guilds that were raiding KZ/Gruuls were still mostly in blues or a wee bit of season 1. My point is that it's doable. I tanked my first full clear KZ with only 3 epics, the rest were all dungeon blues. It's not necessary to be decked out to tank any heroic, KZ or even Gruuls. You do have to have a party/raid that isn't completely horrible though, that's the real challenge.

[Schleppy]

There is unfortunately a second aspect to this that hasn't been broached....


Most random people found in LFG today don't want "a tank", they want "someone to drag them through the instance". My tank got to 70 late in the ballgame, after everyone has SSC/TK/MH/Bt gear. People who have already done the badge run's galore and are just wanting to pick up badges for epic gems or the new badge gear/pvp stuff for the most part have forgotten that once they were in your exact situation. Many groups wanted no part of dealing with a tank in mostly blues and a few crafted/rep epics, they wanted a tank that was in the same boat they were in, just needing a few badges to get their 15th epic gem to fill out their 80% avoidance set.

To succeed in those types of grouping you have to first off perform at the highest level you are capable of with your gear. That means controlling the group, making sure you have enough CC to handle places with pulls you cannot tank all the mobs, setting up kill orders that are resolute and not being afraid to chastise/kick people that break them repeatedly. At all costs PROTECT YOUR HEALER, once you find a healer in the same boat you are (they are more common then undergeared tanks willing to tank) do as many runs as possible with said healer. If you are unfamiliar with an instance, do a little reading to try and learn the pulls as much as you can before entering the place. Nothing makes a run go smoother then a tank that either CC's or kills the healer mobs in the pull before the other mobs. Always demand to be leader once the run starts, nothing will make a group more leery of your tanking skill then you not wanting to mark the mobs up for a kill order. Once you have leader lay out what your marking means, and your kill order. Running with a pally healer is preferred early on as salv gives you more room for error, but once your gear gets better, salv wont be necessary.

I have a macro I spam in any pug group... "square=sap, moon=sheep, star=trap, condom=banish, triangle=enslave", then lay out the kill order, "kill order is skull, X, (insert rest of kill order based off your groups CC)"

Oh, BTW, MT kara, don't offtank it. The first clears of kara other then prince and nightbane were done with tanks who had zero epic pieces of gear, sure you wont hold aggro from that mage who does 1100 dps, but you dont *need* that to have a smooth kara run and once he dies a few times, unless he is an oxygen thief, he will get the hint and tone it down a bit.

Good luck

[Tenraiel]

Source: Schleppy Most random people found in LFG today don't want "a tank", they want "someone to drag them through the instance". My tank got to 70 late in the ballgame, after everyone has SSC/TK/MH/Bt gear. People who have already done the badge run's galore and are just wanting to pick up badges for epic gems or the new badge gear/pvp stuff for the most part have forgotten that once they were in your exact situation. Many groups wanted no part of dealing with a tank in mostly blues and a few crafted/rep epics, they wanted a tank that was in the same boat they were in, just needing a few badges to get their 15th epic gem to fill out their 80% avoidance set. To succeed in those types of grouping you have to first off perform at the highest level you are capable of with your gear. That means controlling the group, making sure you have enough CC to handle places with pulls you cannot tank all the mobs, setting up kill orders that are resolute and not being afraid to chastise/kick people that break them repeatedly. At all costs PROTECT YOUR HEALER, once you find a healer in the same boat you are (they are more common then undergeared tanks willing to tank) do as many runs as possible with said healer. If you are unfamiliar with an instance, do a little reading to try and learn the pulls as much as you can before entering the place. Nothing makes a run go smoother then a tank that either CC's or kills the healer mobs in the pull before the other mobs. Always demand to be leader once the run starts, nothing will make a group more leery of your tanking skill then you not wanting to mark the mobs up for a kill order. Once you have leader lay out what your marking means, and your kill order. Running with a pally healer is preferred early on as salv gives you more room for error, but once your gear gets better, salv wont be necessary. I have a macro I spam in any pug group... "square=sap, moon=sheep, star=trap, condom=banish, triangle=enslave", then lay out the kill order, "kill order is skull, X, (insert rest of kill order based off your groups CC)" Oh, BTW, MT kara, don't offtank it. The first clears of kara other then prince and nightbane were done with tanks who had zero epic pieces of gear, sure you wont hold aggro from that mage who does 1100 dps, but you dont *need* that to have a smooth kara run and once he dies a few times, unless he is an oxygen thief, he will get the hint and tone it down a bit. Good luck

I think this is a smart man. And we're not trying to imply that you bought your toon - but I promise you have room to grow: we all do. Also, I never OT'd Kara. When I was in all blues and a couple greens (beginning of May, so I had to compete with the geared toons like you are) I put together pug'd Kara's myself and MT'd them through. This taught me a ton, and also means that you have more control on what's going on in the raid and ended with far more pleasant experiences than I had had gearing my priest.