Question about Tanking?

[redsix]

I have a level 56 Human warrior spec in Arms. I have read a lot of the posts and I may have overlooked the answer but I dont see what level your to be when your ready to Tank.

Just the other day I needed to finish a quest in the sunken temple (yes I know I am behind in a few) The party leader asked me what am I spec in? I told them Arms and they were ok with that. Well after a while we got all the way before you get to the doorway to Jammal. They dropped me from the group. I whisperd to the party leader and asked why? They told me I was not a tanking the way I should be. I thought I was pulling most of the mobs off of the group. So this got me thinking I want to be a better warrior? I asked a guild mate how do I learn how to tank? He told me about your website and then I started reading about tanking.

I am really confused, but I think I could figure some of it out. I want to cont to level, but really I dont want to miss out of places like the moltan core or any of the cool stuff you can get in those dungeons. I am just looking for some direction I should go in. Just to tank, cont to grind or is there a place in the middle for tanking and leveling.

[Ciderhelm]

Don't sweat Molten Core and some of those larger zones for now. It'd be very surprising if there are guilds still running the zone; unlike 5-mans, Raid Zones are tiered in such a way that they aren't meant to be done once new expansions come out.

For becoming a better tank... You don't need to respec Protection unless you really want to tank. You have to love what you do, or at least love the idea of becoming better, to spec Protection before you are level 68 or so. Heavy tanking for most people is done at the endgame, or, the current level cap depending on the expansion.

We have some very, very helpful people on the forums. I'm hoping they can respond to you a bit more in-depth than I can at the moment.

[Shortypop]

Hi,

When to tank is a very personal thing - I was arms til 60 and only when I started tanking trash in ZG did I respec, but then once TBC came out I levelled to 70 as prot (did have the help of my husbands healadin for questing tho - we were two of the slowest killers ever).

Depends a bit on your server populations as well. But my main advice would be to get to outland as arms - the final grind to 58 can take a while even if doing decent dps. Then it's up to you, your guild and your server, if you think you're likely to find enough groups to level up mainly through instances (and therefore always be questing below your level) I'd say respec (possibly not til 60 though tanking ramps at 58 in pre-TBC greens/blues is not much fun) - instance and learn to tank. We can give you tonnes of advice, but you have to "get your hands dirty". Else swop somewhere between 60 and 70 to a tank spec.

If you want to get involved in kara and 25man raids then I would really advise levelling at least a little as tank - its a role you either love or hate. I know several brilliant dps warriors who simply dont enjoy tanking while I simply hate dps'ing as a warrior.

Hope this helps, as I say its a very personal choice and I'm sure lots of tanks leveled to 70 as dps, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would recommend learning the skills of the trade before 70.

[OldHarry]

I tanked just fine with very heavy Arms spec all the way to Ramparts, where I quit running dungeons altogether until I was Prot at 70 again. ST is very easy to tank with full Arms spec.

It's a shame you were just kicked without any suggestions. Typically when I join a PUG the first thing I do is ask them to feel free to give me constructive tanking feedback. About 20% of the time I would get some. I also always tell the PUG when this is my first time in an instance, and ask them to please inform me if there's anything special I need to know about parts of the instance ahead of time. Otherwise "I'll just go for the skull and tank it." I don't tank any instance without someone marking targets and communicating.

For advice, we would need to know some details about what they were unhappy with. What was the group composition in ST? Did you have AoE/CC with you? Did you all wipe at all? Where did you wipe, and who died first when you wiped? More info would help.

[OldHarry]

By the way, it's very possible the other 4 in the group were looking for specific loot from Jammal and they just didn't want to compete with you for it. I've seen this happen when you get a lot of people from one guild, or perhaps real life friends that were just using you to get to Jammal. Was there another Plate wearer in the group?

Also to answer your other question....I leveled very quickly from 60 to 70 with nothing but green gear. It was very easy and I was rested the whole time so it went by very fast just grinding. It just depends on what kind of blocks of time you have and what you enjoy. I would say that if you're going to want to be the main tank in all the Outlands instances, that you spec Prot sometime after the Hellfire instances.

Having said that, I was always afraid grinding/leveling would be slower with Prot. Not true!!! Now that I'm Prot, I grind just as fast, and there's a simple reason.....I very rarely have to eat, and I take virtually no damage against casters with a Shield. Who needs Mortal Strike when you can silence them completely!?

I suggest you just try it out. Spend the 5 or 10 gold and give it a whirl. If you don't like it spend another 10 or 15 gold and go right back to Arms. If you do respec, give it a week or two to get used to it.