A meatshield with no meat.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/illidan/Whoosah/simple

Fresh 85, first tanking toon, 350 ilvl.

Been doing heroics to get my gear up but I seem to be having an avoidance issue of some sort I think. I'm taking WAY too much damage on simple pulls. Heroics should be a bit of a cake walk but I always seem to be taking hits to heavy to even be healed through. My aggro is no issue and I know the strats. Should I be ignoring socket bonuses and just going for pure Mastery to expidite this process? Tell me what I'm doing wrong tankspot!

It's only logical that it will be challenging when you're undergeared not gemmed and not enchanted most of your gear. Aim for mastery but use most of the socketbonuses they are usually worth it. Easy upgrades would be 365 cloak from thrall questline, crafted 359 belt and just more gear from heroics and justice/valor points. Bracers deserve and enchant ;)

Like Bigbad already said, get yourself gemmed and enchanted first ;)

Trinkets: Unless you are doing heroic raids or you are CTC capped, you don't want/need stamina trinkets. CTC > healthpool

The original heroics and the trolls are still bitches this late in the expansion, they may even be worse now than in the beginning; because of the players now going into them. Healer mana is an issue in them, the mobs do stupid damage if not cc'd and some of the boss mechanics are better suited to a raid environment.

Unfortunately, if you tanked while leveling and tanked normals, they are in no way indicative of the hell that is original Cata heroics.

I tank on a Warrior, DK and Pally; I've tanked/healed/dps'd and killed most of the raid content since WoLK including my fair share of heroic modes - I'm in no way great, but I know what the hell I'm doing and I am dreading taking my 333 ilvl new DK 85 into the heroics to gear her. I've put it off for the last 10 days and am seriously thinking about just putting her on the shelf until MoP. Okay, I won't, but the thought did cross my mind.

What? But... there's... so... much... free... gear... like....

They've been nerfed since they were released. People running the heroics have worse gear now than they did at the beginning. And you can get ilevel 378 with justice badges only (aka running normals).

I don't understand how heroics could possibly be worse now.

Oh and as per the OP: Have your groups tried CCing mobs? You have a lot of stuns as a pally and should be able to mitigate your own intake besides that.

Also, yes you should be gemming straight mastery until CTC. Don't be afraid to use cooldowns liberally.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aggathon

I don't understand how heroics could possibly be worse now.

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Agg, level a toon and go in them; it is hell. My rogue was my last 85 (before the DK) and I tried a few heroics on her and it was just nasty. People didn't want to cc, they didn't know the fights, they didn't want to listen and worst of all a lot them forget they're not in 378/397s and can't zerg the place.

Nightmare, just a nightmare.

both me and my roommate has (and he worked nights, so we were never playing at the same time). Neither of us had any problems with heroics.

I want your luck of the draw.

Trying to pull up your armory on my portable device since I'm nerfed here.....

A few thoughts though.

1) Don't go into heroics thinking you're going to rotflstomp them as a fresh 85. Unless you're toting along with you well-geared 85's, you're facing a similar issue to what all of us faced at the start of Cata with heroics. The baseline Cata heroics, even nerfed, are not very forgiving.

2) If you're running with fresh 85 heals.... they are going to have mana issues. These were taxing for healers fresh out the gates.

3) If your dps classes are fresh dps.... kick them in the butt first and tell them to come back with PvP gear to start. Basic honor gear at this point FAR outperforms 346 crap. And it's a hell of a lot easier to get. Same for healers. I mean... really.... honor gear, at this point, flat out whoops 346 heroic drops and ZA/ZG drops.

If you are a fresh 85 heals or dps..... do yourself a favor and go get honor gear to start. After you get some pieces there and can hold your own a bit, start swapping out pieces for more ideal secondary stats. At any rate, your primary stats with that honor gear will be WAY the hell ahead of a full set of 346 and those stats count HEAVILY for your roles.

4) As a tank.... even some current honor gear will not be the end of the world if you reforge it. At worst, the gear will be subpar on CTC...... which is what the 346 stuff will be anyway. On the bright side.... you'll have fewer threat issues (more strength) and have more stam by a long shot. If there is 391 honor gear with mastery/resil.... it's a better sub than that 316 or 333 you're toting around from a basic life/death standpoint. Up to a point.

5) CC's. If your group isn't using them, they are NOT doing you any favors. Hell... I'll say it flat out.... they are a LARGE part of the problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Theotherone

Agg, level a toon and go in them; it is hell. My rogue was my last 85 (before the DK) and I tried a few heroics on her and it was just nasty. People didn't want to cc, they didn't know the fights, they didn't want to listen and worst of all a lot them forget they're not in 378/397s and can't zerg the place.

Nightmare, just a nightmare.

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This........

I saw this so damn much.

There's an issue where Blizzard bunched a crapton of Brazil servers onto US realm battlegroups. Servers such as Azralon, Goldrinn, Tol Barad and a few others. Generally if you have 1 or more person from one of those realms you will more than likely pull your hair out. Even worse if both LFR tanks are from there, think purple fire on Ultraxxion, as far as the eye can see. Casters pulling 2k dps on single target tank and spanks. I have a hunter that I leveled primarily in LFD and was killing myself all the way to 76 when I got MD. Now I just rofl through heroics pulling top dps like the nub that I am and usually the group falls apart at boss 2 or 3. I'm stuck in the Troll heroics for 2 more ilevels. So frustrating, at least HoT are the easiest this expansion has, right? Right? Guys? Lol. Agg all I can say as usual is, damn you.