Whats Wrong with my Tank?

[JesicaAlba]

I have a new tank and I followed the Pre-Naxx guide on the warrior forums. I'm at the defense minimum and have begun tanking heroics. The problem is that I am so squishy and I think healers hate me. If you could visit my armory
The World of Warcraft Armory
If the tank gods could please let me know what stat I should be focused on right now, and maybe guide me to the dungeons I should be doing right now..
Thnk you in advance...... Jess

[Skyaxe]

Your gear is fine for early heroics. Work on geting more Avoidance/Block. Always remember, once you hit 80, you wont beable to dive right into some heroics. Like TBC, you could not hit 70 and run right to heroic Shattered Halls. They had to start out in Slave Pens.

Work to get your gear upgraded. A GREAT way to do this, is build your rep with Wyrmrest, they have very nice rewards (Cape, boots, chest) and Argent Crusade (Pants).

Also, it might be worth goin back to netherstorm and finishing the quest to get you Dabiri's Enigma - Item - World of Warcraft. This is worlds better than your "overlord" reward.

[Fayre]

Remember that although it might be 'unfashionable', you can (and should) use CC in heroics when you're a bit squishy at first. Your stats look fine. Your armor feels a bit low but that'll come with gear upgrades.

I'd suggest heroics like VH (grats on the legs), UK, Stratholme (not timed yet), and doing normal Oculus (some real nice tank gear there). You basically want to look at replacing your Tempered Saronite. Perhaps check out Demog's gear listing (which focusses on survival) and work your way through it

[Aethraen]

The reason you're so squishy:

• Dodge: 17.98%
• Parry: 16.08%
• Block: 15.92%

This is because your gear currently really only has Defense on it, except a few pieces. Naturally as you get gear from heroics this will change. If you're not using CC, you may use a little just to soften the damage until you have a few more pieces.

As far as gear suggestions.
Ahn'karet - Old Kingdom (Heroic); Bracers of the Herald + Greaves of Ancient Evil
Azjol-Nerub (Heroic); Essence of Gossamer + Ancient Aligned Girdle
Drak'tharon Keep (Heroic); Ziggarut Imprinted Chestguard
Gundrak (Heroic); Horn-Tipped Gauntlets
The Nexus (Heroic); Arcane-Shielded Helm
Halls of Lightning (NORMAL); Seal of the Pantheon
Halls of Stone (Heroic); Woeful Band
Utgarde Pinnacle (Heroic); Red Sword of Courage

And as was said already, Wyrmrest Accord and the Argent Crusade both offer nice things for you

[JesicaAlba]

Really appreciate the expert feed back. Got the trinket first, and now I'm on to the rest of the list. As far as CC goes, I attempted H UK and didn't use it and I had a healer tell me that they hated me, I'm horrible, and quit. A little harsh but seeing the error in my ways I came prepared the following night with a mage, hunter and rogue. Cake. Guess I'm gonna be "unfashionable" for awhile. Thnx again yall !!

[klor]

there are also good items from halls of stone normal (a pair of shoulders from the quest given to you inside) and a set of bracers off the first boss in utgarde pinnacle (normal as well)

[Hawktalon]

As far as CC goes, I attempted H UK and didn't use it and I had a healer tell me that they hated me, I'm horrible, and quit. A little harsh but seeing the error in my ways I came prepared the following night with a mage, hunter and rogue. Cake. Guess I'm gonna be "unfashionable" for awhile. Thnx again yall !!

There's nothing wrong with a little "old school" CC ... as a warrior tank back in the day I never ran instances without at least 2 kinds

Definitely ask for lead so you can mark. I had to download an addon like LuckyCharms to mark quickly because my DPS would get all twitchy and start pulling on me (crazy moonkin and insta-cast moonfire ... )

Good luck and have fun collecting your badges & loots!

[Moloch]

Something I like to do for quick and efficient marking is I have my F1 through F8 keys bound to each of the symbols. Takes me all of about 3 seconds to mark stuff with it.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

[rmd83]

Your gear looks ok. You might want to get something a bit better than dabiri's enigma though and lv your eng. for the goggles by far the best head tank piece till naxx drop imo

[IKT]

The reason you're so squishy:

• Dodge: 17.98%
• Parry: 16.08%
• Block: 15.92%

What should we be aiming for?

[Termoyle]

glad i found this thread. Trust me Jess, you're not alone I was having the same issue of feeling squishy. After being a DPS for a mass majority of my warrior career it was a rough transition, reading as much as i can on this site has helped. thanks.

[rmd83]

What should we be aiming for?

I'm doing fine at 20.73% dodge 16% parry 18% block and 5.93% miss for my guild's progression of naxx which isn't very far. You still want to aim for the 102.3% total mitigation which with both my trinkets and shield popped i'm sitting at 107.10% i'll be getting more gear very soon too though so i'm happy

[Turmoil]

I generally run at 557 def, 24.64% dodge, 18.39% parry and 29.7% block.. and I still feel damn squishy in heroics if the (pug) healer isn't up to scratch (on the other hand I've received a couple of compliments that I'm easy to heal). In Naxx I feel quite happy indeed.

I generally started to feel comfortable (with a good healer) at about 20% dodge, 17% parry and whatever block I had floating about (~20% I think), but I think that was partially a mental thing, and I stayed up okay before that. I never went for pure def though (perhaps a virtue of having TBC tank kit).. try to focus more on dodge/block rating if you can; stuff like gemming for dodge (your HP is fine, I'd suggest dropping the 24stam in your belt buckle for a 14dodge) or doing the sons of hodir dailies to honored for the 15dodge/10def rating shoulder enchant will help you out too.

[JesicaAlba]

"doing the sons of hodir dailies to honored for the 15dodge/10def rating shoulder enchant"

Totally didn't know about that one .. Thnk you all for your help