Good enough for tanking some easy heroic?

[Wartau]

Hi,

2 days ago I dinged 80.. I'm now gathering some gear so I can start some hard heroics later on.. My question is, if I can tank some easy heroics like nexus, UK or Gundrak. I'm going with a friend, who is a healer.. He is skilled already, so he should be fine..
So could any of you please take a look at my armory and tell me what you think? I'm farming rep for the Wyrmrest accord so I can get the back and enchant.. (and some other thing which I forget )

This is my armory:
The World of Warcraft Armory

Tnx in advance!

[Blue]

Uh, Wartau,

Unless you're going in with a really fantastic group, you will get smashed in Heroic anything, right now. You have the right idea, regarding getting the rep, with Wyrmrest (back, boots, and enchant)--also go for Sons of Hodir rep.

Really, you should be focused on the rep, and maybe normal dungeons. You can use the normals to familiarize yourself with the fights.

You can try the Heroics, with your friends, but you won't be contributing much to the effort, at this point. In other words, they'll be carrying you...and, unless your healer friend is uber-skilled, there will be much wiping!

Others will no doubt inform you of your shortages in stats, gear, enchants, glyphs, etc. I'll just point out one...your defense...you need 535 before you should even consider going into a Heroic!

Good luck!

[Bung]

You did your homework on your spec..nice job!!! Spending money on enchants can be a waste sometimes. The above poster is correct, you need DEF of 535 or higher. In your case by enchanting +20 Def on ur shield and +22 Def on ur chest I think you would make it to 535. Try Heroic UK first. Bring some decent DPS to help.

Bung

[Wartau]

Ok, can someone rate my armory again please?
I now have 535 def rating..
Can I now start some easy ones?? Or do I have to get my HP to 23k first?

Tnx

[PatrikL]

(looking at updated gear now)

I think I started tanking HCs at about your level maybe a little bit higher hp and if you are going with a healer friend I dont think you should hesitate really. Sure there will be wipes but then again, doing the easier heroics is in my opinion the best way to upgrade your gear.

Make sure you wear the tabard of Wyrmrest so you get your rep up with them at the same time. Also work on your rep with Sons of Hodir since they have a good shoulder enchant Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle at honored and then an even better one at exalted.

I'd recomend UK, Nexus, DTK (nice ring there and if you skip King Dred its fairly easy) and VH (pray for the rich bosses and you might get very good legs from last boss). Gundrak can be a pain if you have just started unless you have good dpsers imho.

[PatrikL]

Also I forgot to say, do HoL normal for the Seal of Pantheon from Loken. Good defense rating and an armor cd also.

[Rune]

Money can make a difference. Can you afford much? Because titanium earthguard and frostguard rings, earthguard chain neck, icebane girdle and threads (frost stuff has a LOT of stam but no defence/avoidance outside of gemming), also boe epics on ah.
Seal of the pantheon mentioned above, with that you can afford to lose blue items for higher stam and avoidance stuff.
Get the rep factions up, meaning do the chain to open up sons of hodir asap, and the helm from argent crusade as soon as you hit revered.

[Wartau]

Ok, I upgraded my gear a little bit again.
The guides here at tankspot says I should be able to do some easy HC's now..
But today I tryed Nexus HC, I don't know if the group was good or not, but I didn't were able to hold the aggro well.. And the healer also couldn't heal me up.. Could also the healer a bit though.. Cause there were other partymembers blaming the healer.. But I didn't felt well about what I was doing. I've tanked Nexus HC before with my friend and it went really well.. But today I didn't proceed in keeping the aggro on me.. While I was doing exactly the same as the other instances I tanked..

What should I improve on my gear? Do I need more hit rating or something? I didn't really looked for it.. But I thought I missed much in the fights which made me lose aggro, so that could be a problem. Sure, I also know I need more stamina, which I'm also aiming for.. But the biggest problem was keeping aggro, and not the healer weren't able to keep me alive..

I really don't know what's wrong exactly, I hope some of you would be able to help again )

Heres my armory:
The World of Warcraft Armory

[Garshek]

Your gear seems fine for doing heroics, however, I noticed that you have VERY few enchants. I understand that your gear isn't the best but you can still gain a lot of "extra" by putting some chants on things. You are also missing a lot of glyphs, I only see glyph of dev. showing up on your armory.

You mentioned threat as an issue. Are you using vigilance? if so, on whom? Are you having issues with AoE threat or single target boss threat? Are your DPS REALLY out-gearing you (if so, there's not a whole lot you can do aside from ask them to hold back a bit).

[Eraser]

At this stage of the game, you have really low avoidance. So it won't matter what heroic you're doing you'll be taking alot of damage, especially with some of those pulls in nexus so you should be prepared to use your cool downs. Also as Garshek mentioned your dps probably outgear you so that's also to your disadvantage, especially in the aoe situation.

For two solid threat pieces, I'd grab your healer friend and try hit up gundrak for the Horn-Tipped Guantlets, violet hold for the bolstered leggings, as well as culling of strathholme for the royal crest of lordaron.

On a different note, it sounds like you need to get yourself Omen, it's a mod that tells you of your threat as well as other's. You can download it here, it should help you understand why you're losing threat, it will also tell you who to vigilance.

[Wartau]

It's still happening, I've now got my gear to 24k unbuffed..
I did a UK run today, but exactly the same happened.. The dps'ers over-aggro me for some reason.. When there's multiple mobs I always use TC and shockwave when they come of CD. Then I swap between the mobs using shield slam and devastate.. And using Revenge when it becomes availible..

Today there was a warrior with me in the group... He almost had most DPS. So I think it could be the problem he over aggro me because he uses Heroic strike, which will let u get high thread.. I'm not sure about this though..

But I'm getting ench's for my gear now and look how it goes.. It could also be I should practice more.. But it always went well for me, except now :S

[Garshek]

Wartau,

What about using cleave with a glyph of cleaving. Spreading that threat out over 3 targets is a BIG help. Are you utilizing Conc Blow to your advantage? As I asked before, if that warrior was a big threat-hog were you casting vigilance on him?

[Avengedagain]

the glyph of cleaving is amazing for multiple mobs i charge in clap and cleave tab if there is more than 3 mobs and cleave again. i cleave while shield slam and revenge are on CD. and i usually dont use my shockwave unless its a group of 5 mobs or if im loosing threat for which at the point i focus on that mob (this was when i first started tanking heroics and getting gear). took a look at ur armory and holy damn lol.

you NEED to get exalted with Wyrmrest accord for like the best pre-raiding gear (cloak which you have, boots, and chest peice). Also need to get exalted with argent crusade for their 32+stam 20+ def rating helm enchant. your boots imo were a waste of gold, which could of gone to relics for atleast honored for Sons of Hodir. Exalted with Kirin Tor for their nice tanking gloves.

specs good. imo glyph of blocking (bit more survivablity) devistate is fine, and ditch the SW glpyh for glyph of cleaving more threat on one more mob.

enchanting ur gear wont hurt either -.- atleast 20+def to sheild. atleast titanchain on your wep. both pretty cheap.

gearing my for my tank set was way easier since i had duel spec and dps'ed heroics and rolled on tank gear since usually i was lucky to get in a group with raid geared tanks. ask your guild to help you get gear thats what they are there for (i hope)

[Rune]

I dunno as a tank I found those problems to start with tne with better gear it went away. But now doing heroics as dps.........just for a change from being tank I find I overaggro all the time.....with the spare gear I picked up for offspec along the way I seem to over gear heroics even with tanks that seem well geared.
At this point in the game high dps are your best friend(for making things more survivable killing the bosses and mobs quick) and your worst enemy (overaggroing all the time, and blaming you for it). I'm glad I got geared well before this stage of the game.
Main options for you is to get some gear with block value (scales for threat I think on warriors [paladin myself] and will boost overall damage reduction), and getting the HoL trinket asap to replace the def gear with stuff with more avoidance/hp but less def.
You could also look into doing wg for anvil of the titans for threat (plus def cap buffer) and violet hold for the cygnosia legs drop and trinket from levanthor.
Warrior specific advice I'll leave to others

[Blue]

Hi, Wartau!

It's coming along well enough, gear-wise...you still need to get Wyrmrest rep to Revered...this will give you a decent chest piece and boots. You will then be looking for things to get your hit rating up. It's really low, right now, probably because of your struggles to get the defense number to the minimum level. Your Health is fine, for now...(hey, noticed that you need to repair your gear, before another fight-fyi).
Don't forget to finish your glyphs...and, my god, get a weapon with some speed, and more damage! The slower weapon may get a bit more deep wound damage, but it's horrible for establishing/maintaining threat, imho. On the glyph, mocking blow is a nice threat attack, but I rarely use it, and I wouldn't have thought of glyphing for it...how's it working, for you? As previous poster mentioned...concussion blow is a nice attack, and the Cleave glyph can be useful, too. I'd glyph for battle shout, charge, and Bloodrage, on my minors. Of course, your mileage may vary, as I'm not really up on Tauren racial abilities and such...


As to your talent spread...overall ok, but I would move points out of Focused Rage, into Shield Specialization. I would also move points from Cruelty to Improved Bloodrage, if you are having Rage issues, with mob trash. Besides, without a decent hit/expertise rating, your percentage of crits is rather moot, right now.

Have you checked out Argent Tournament? Best of all possible worlds...get rep, get gold, and purchase that nice tanking axe! Groups of two or three, really speed up things there, too!

Are you doing dailies, to make gold? Wintergrasp, for some trinkets?

As for the heroic fights, themselves...

Be sure to remind your group to let you establish your threat, before they jump in. This is very important, especially for Warrior tanks. Tell them to wait for at least six seconds...remind the dps with pets, to keep their pets back, too...(personal annoyance, of mine...). It's as one of the previous posters said...bring along great DPS, and it's great, but also they tend not to want to wait for the tank, as they are more focused on getting badges, and moving on.

My overall advice would be to get help from your guild. Contact your leader, and tell him you want to get geared, but you also need help in developing, as a tank. To do that, you need time to work out the mechanics of the fights, not just how quickly the mobs can be burned down. As I mentioned before, this also might include doing the instances on normal mode...particularly the more difficult ones.

Be patient, and seek help, and knowledge...

And, hey, don't forget to have fun, eh?

[Garshek]

I have nothing more to add to this thread aside from...

Blue, I wish more posters on ALL forums were like you! Your knowledgeable, friendly, and quite good at explaining things! I tip my helm to you good sir!

[Verrmilion]

guys if you have any gear & 500+ def rating & >18,5k hp you can start tanking UK HC & HC Nexus without last boss. I did that myself lol and it worked somehow with wipes Man I was so proud with my 18,5k hp Hugz

[Wartau]

Much, much thanks for all these tips guys!
I will try to work them out when I get playing again.. Which will be in a few days, unfortunatly
I already tryed some heroics these days, and they went so much better.. Didn't had any big thread issue's anymore.. This won't say they're all over :P Sure, I lose thread sometimes..But it's getting much better!

Also, my guild asked me to OT the last boss of Naxx.. I was scared to screw it up.. They said they wouldn't care if it would happen.. We had 2 wipes on the boss. But my guild told me I was doing fine to keep aggro from the adds

And yes, I really need a new weapon. I was aiming on the UK:Pinnacle axe.. Going to do it with my friend next week.. Is this weapon also good??

For enchants and Gems, where should I aim for?? For more HP, or for exp/hit rating??
My defense's still above the raid cap.. Still have to keep it above it as I gain gear, for sure

Anyways, Really really thanks for helping me!

Edit: For the money: I have a medium amount of money.. So I can affort not to expensive things.. As I bought really much in AH.. I now can affort 1700g.. Where I'm also helping my friend getting his epic flyer with.. So I think it's better to leave my gear like this without spending money on new items (my opinion though). So I have some money left to get enchants and gems..

[Moridin Of Galakrond]

Just looked at you're armory. First big thing that I noticed that would cause you to lose threat is your hit rating. The cap is 263 rating, you're at around 75. That's a lot of misses. Also you're expertise is at 12, which is also going to hurt your threat. You should gem for what stats you need, expertise>hit>stamina>avoidance generally. A warrior already has a hard time with AoE threat and if your shockwave/TC/cleave misses at the same time your DPS opens up, it'll suck. People who are well geared have problems if a mage starts hammer a pack before you get good threat on a group.

It's rough to start tanking before you get decent gear. I know you want to jump into heroics, but if you can't handle heroics, look at what normal 80 dungeons you can run for upgrades. HoL is a great on to run for the Seal Of The Pantheon that drops. It'll help alot for staying def capped and give you wiggle room for gear upgrades.

Also, I do this for most upgrades I want. Research the gear you want. I use armory to give a list of the upgrades and see what's attainable at my gear/skill level. This helps you look at what stats you need and so on.

When you do get a random drop that is an upgrade you didn't plan for, do take it. Big tip though, save your gear, You never know when you'll need some expertise and changing out your current bracers for old ones because you lost expertise on a new chest drop. The only time I get rid of gear is when it is a clear upgrade.

I know it can be costly and time consuming, but drop herbalism and pick up blacksmithing or jewelcrafting. They will pair with your mining well and give you 2 extra sockets or dragon's eye gems in the end. Not to mention JC has a nice dodge trinket with 2 sockets.

I know you'll lose the second profession for money, but in my opinion, running daily quests nets you more gold then gathering. Or running old dungeons like Stratholme, ZG. The drops/cloth sell well.

[Molohk]

Don't be scared of tanking Naxx. Your stats are ok to start tanking bosses in Naxx 10, and the experience would be good. Keep farming heroic AN and regular HoL for two of the best tanking trinkets you can get. If you get the HoL trinket you'll get a lot of extra defense that will give you room for more avoidance or threat stats (hit rating and/or expertise). The UK weapon is pretty good, there's also an argent tournament weapon that's decent.

What's with the agility and the prismatic gem? I can see you did your homework, so you probably know they're really not the best choice for you.