multiple warrior tanks in ZA

[Katos]

Now I'll admit right up front, my knowledge about ZA is severely limited. I've been in the place once since it was on the test realms, and that was on my lock, not warrior.

That being said, my guild seems to believe that you 'must' have a paladin tank to do ZA successfully. I think it's due to some very specific aoe pulls on the trash that they are afraid to do without a paladin tank. My question is, how important is it to have a paladin in ZA to tank? Honestly to me it sounds absolutely ridiculous that you 'must' have a paladin tank for ZA, especially giving that it's a 10 man. Would it make things easier? Probably, even I can see this clearly.

Let me give some background. Currently there's 1 ZA run going in my guild. The tank spots are pretty much spoken for. Yet when the paladin can't go, and they need a new tank, they still prefer to hold out for a pally tank as opposed to another warrior/druid. I'm thinking of starting my own run of ZA and of course would run it very differently than this current one is now, so I need to know if Paladins are as important as they claim they are in there, or if they're full of it and it could be done with any 2 tanks (even if things are a bit more difficult)

[Arrivan]

ZA is entirely possible without a paladin tank. My guild started ZA without one, and we still regularly have two warrior tanks. There are three particular places (that I've done at least) where a paladin tank is advantageous, but not necessary. These places are the gauntlet leading to Akil'zon, the lynx packs on the way to Halazzi and the dragonhawk adds in the Jan'alai fight. Keep in mind I haven't done Hex Lord or Zul'jin yet. We've only tried Jan'alai a couple of times and our raid leader did respec Prot (he's normally Holy) that week, but I can share how we deal with the others.

Akil'zon's gauntlet: MT tanks the two elites (Wind Walkers/Protectors), OT tanks the warriors. Paladin (any spec) holds the eagles with Consecrate and Righteous Fury. If you don't have a paladin, you can have the MT and OT spam Thunderclap to try to hold the eagles, but they'll probably aggro onto one of the AOEers, so you'll need to be ready to heal them.

Non-elite lynx packs: I've tanked them with a bunch of damage reflecting gear such as [item]Petrified Lichen Guard[/item] with a shield spike, Thorns, [item]Stormchops[/item]. Your AOEers will have to wait for you to get some aggro because it's nowhere near as good as Consecration, and they will probably still pull aggro. Oh, and don't forget to spam Thunderclap. However, we ususally have our raid leader put on his tank gear and spam Consecrate.

Stealthed elite lynx packs: MT tanks two, OT tanks two, sheep/sleep/trap any left over. If there is not enough CC, tank more. They don't hit that hard. These groups are easy.

Admittedly a paladin tank makes ZA a lot easier. However, you can do it without one.

[Shortypop]

I'd second Arrivan's comments (bear, lynx and eagle downed, one night of attempts on dragonhawk), due to server shortages we don't have a pally tank. Our usual tank team consists of a warrior and druid (to maximise buffs and as eagle doesn't require two tanks - although bear, lynx and dragnhawk do).

Eagle gauntlet - druid in front (tanks 2 elites - focused fired down) - one healer; two aoe's take the eagles - one healer; warrior take the rear trolls - pally healer (useful for stunning them if the rear tank gets charged). We've also done this with two druids - once the rear tank has agro, the pally healer won't pull them off and we just aoe them down right at the end.

If we'd had a pally tank we might have got dragonhawk down, next time we're going to try getting a holy pally to tank one bigger wave of adds, so that we have less eggs at the end to deal with.

I'm sure it's harder without one and if you have one, yes get him to tank but if that's what's holding back a second za group, then that's stupid.

Btw, in case you're wondering, our gear is pretty much full kara, with some early 25man drops - this is our main focus, so we don't run za much

[Worldie]

More than 2 warrior tanks you would like to have war+druid, since part of the bosses only require 1 tank.

[Sandmann]

have been only one or two times in ZA with a pally tank, mostly a druid or sometimes a warrior, pala helps at some spots but it is absolutly doable, downed everthing including zul'jin so yeah its possible

[Taelas]

It makes things ... a ton easier. But it's not crucial.

[nobel]

Only boss really that a paladin tank is awsome for is dragonhawk, and this depends on how you do it. Our guild tend to break all the eggs on one side in one shot with a pally. Other then that two warriors would be fine. The onyl disadvantage that i see is 1) buffs and 2) the eagle boss only needs one tanks.. so a druid + warrior combo would be better then two prot warriors imo.

For the multi pulls.. i do fine with TC + shield spike..autoblocker is nice on this to get that huge threat lead on first kill so you can then tab dev to the others.

[veneretio]

In every place where a Pally tank is a "must have", a holy paladin using Righteous Fury can be used instead. 2 Warriors is more than fine.

[Katos]

Thanks guys. Just starting I'm probably only gonna focus on 2 bosses to start with and go from there. If I can get a pally then I'll get one and if not, it won't stop me from doing it.

[Arrivan]

In every place where a Pally tank is a "must have", a holy paladin using Righteous Fury can be used instead. 2 Warriors is more than fine.

QFT. This is what my guild often does.

[Noraxe]

No doubt a pally tank isnt needed in ZA but is handy on the AoE mobs and if your going for the timed chest's. We usually have me(warrior) and a druid. With me tanking eagle, bear, hex and zuljin and the druid tanking Halazzi and Dragonhawk.

Well the bear we've started switching for some odd reason. But its nice having him on the bear phase so I can watch my cig so it dosent burn a hole in my pants or my desk

[Nuberino]

In every place where a Pally tank is a "must have", a holy paladin using Righteous Fury can be used instead. 2 Warriors is more than fine.

Would the holy pally have to be in tank gear? Also, could a holy pally tank out half a side at a time (or even full side)?

[Noraxe]

We had a holy pally doing aoe tanking up to Akil'zon. When this guy who usually has a very strong voice on vent said "Nor take em off me" I understood it wasn't the smartest thing to do.
So if your holy pally dont have high amount of armor I would suggest him putting on some tank gear atleast 50/50 tank/healing gear

[Nuberino]

I am thinking for Dragonhawk, since we usually run with me a feral druid and then a pally healer. I know we can get the dragonhawk down with the druid tanking the adds, but we haven't quite figured out the right balance of releasing eggs and still having good control over the adds. Would be nice if we could reliably release half of a side with the holy pally and then just concentrate on burning dragonhawk down afterwards.

[Noraxe]

If the paladin is able to take that much dmg and get agro really fast it should be doable, also if your aoe'ers are ace.
We have a pretty pro Pally tank and he tells the dps'ers to kill the hatcher fairly quick. the time it went the smoothest was when we had my friend who I do arenas with she specced disc to get PI and PS and that really helped during that fight. So (not saying its the best, but if you have to) have the holy paladin tanking them with a disc priest. But also remember the debuff they put on the one with agro and if he/she gets the flame from Jan and isnt dispelled it will most likely be game over
But when I tank em we usually let loose about 4 eggs = 10 tweety's.