Heroic tanking and holding aggro issues!

[Kaoscontrol]

Hey there folks

I'm in need of some advice to better myself at the whole tanking lark. Basically i quit WoW in january so i could focus on my studies, and have recently got back into it all, with that out of the way.

I'm looking for some solid advice here beause i jsut seem to be stuck inbetween a dark spot, and no longer wish to be there!

As the title of the thread says really...i'm after some generl advice on all of the above really. Just before quitting WoW, i got into tanking so...in gameplay terms, have only really recently got into it all and i just seem to be struggling horribly.

i recently capped out at 540 (and now 556 because the damn HoL trinket dropped today AT LAST!) and thought "HELL lets give heroics a shot"....big mistake! tried out Gundrak and failed HORRIBLY! nothing wanted to be aggroed by me what so ever! and every heroic i've tried since, i've just not been able to get the aggro off people and onto myself.

Generally i use the rotation of: Charge - Thunderclap - Shockwave, Devestate, Sheild Slam. And then when i can, Revenge is thrown in, and from that point onwards dev, thunderclap and shockwave spam in no paticular order (normally when i notice they've cooled down) put either way...it just isnt picking up the aggro! so then i'm having to resort to taunt + Challenging shout to pick up anything...to only have it leave me once again a few seconds later, which is more than frustrating!

And then i came to the conclusion.....could it possibly be my gear thats at fault also? at the moment im grinding daily for wyrmest rep so i can pick up the 2 pieces of plate there....so any advice on my current armour would be awesome too!

and thirdly...we come to my talent tree.....any advice there is greatley appretiated.

I just...i don't want to be stuck behind this. i want to be a much better tank than i currently am, so any advice is greatley appretiated on all of it....rotation, glyphs, talents, armour etc!

many thanks

James

[Kashak]

Your spec is a bit off... Your missing the threat talents.

Drop Puncture Improved Disc, and Bloodrage
Put a point in Damage Shield and max out 1 handed spec.
Drop Iron Will and Anger Management.
Pick up Heroic Strike, Impale and Deep Wounds.
Cnage Booming Voice to Cruelty.

Work from there, keep Deep Wounds for now until you get a better handle on threat. Improved Disc or for Ulduar.

<Edit>
Change your glyphs, Shield Slam, Cleave, and choose your third. Heroic Strike, Revenge, and Shockwave are all favorites, but I've found most trash pulls happen every 20 seconds, perfect for an unglyphed SW.

Charge in, Thunder Clap, Line up the mobs, Shockwave, then rotation Shield Slam > Revenge > Dev. You'll find when SW wears off TC is back up, I usually interrupt my rotation to toss out another TC as soon as it's up on trash. While doing your rotation tab through the targets after every GCD or two. With Cleave hitting 3 mobs you can keep aggro on them all till they are dead.

Put a shield spike on your shield, enchant your gloves with Armsmen, get rid of the parry gem in your helm, use expertise or expertise/stamina for red sockets. Get a socket for your belt, gem more expertise. Get an expertise enchant on your wrists and icewalker on your boots.

See where your at once you get that done.

[Kaoscontrol]

Thanks for that Kashak, i'll bear all that in mind and change my spec Asap.

also got to get my blacksmith skill up when i changed to tank i swapped that profession from something else that i've completley forgotten now (and i did it for a year O.o). so i'm yet to grind much ore to hit the 400 for the sockets.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the matter? i'd love to hear them all

[Spazlord]

Generally i use the rotation of: Charge - Thunderclap - Shockwave, Devestate, Sheild Slam. And then when i can, Revenge is thrown in, and from that point onwards dev, thunderclap and shockwave spam in no paticular order (normally when i notice they've cooled down) put either way...it just isnt picking up the aggro! so then i'm having to resort to taunt + Challenging shout to pick up anything...to only have it leave me once again a few seconds later, which is more than frustrating!

From what you've written there, it sounds like you are relying on Thunderclap and Shockwave to do your AOE tanking for you. It's not enough. Kashak spelled it out pretty good in his post just previous, but to emphasise a few points:

Shield Slam is your highest threat move. Followed by Revenge (which can proc a free Shield Slam). Devastate is less priority but still important because it applies Sunder Armor and can also proc a free Shield Slam. For trash pulls, use the Tab key to target enemies individually, and use high threat moves on each one (Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate). Queue up Cleave on every swing (hits 2 targets). Don't forget stuff like Spell Reflect, Concussion Blow and Shield Bash. They are great for threat, and reduce the damage you take. Keep Thunderclap and Shockwave on cooldown, but that won't hold threat against DPS going balls to the wall AOE, or worse, single target DPS on different targets.

Warrior AOE tanking requires a lot of buttons! You'll get a good feel for it after a while, just get comfortable with the TAB key, remember to Cleave, and make sure you hit every mob with a big threat move every so often, on top of Thunderclap/Shockwave.

[Spazlord]

Generally i use the rotation of: Charge - Thunderclap - Shockwave, Devestate, Sheild Slam. And then when i can, Revenge is thrown in, and from that point onwards dev, thunderclap and shockwave spam in no paticular order (normally when i notice they've cooled down) put either way...it just isnt picking up the aggro! so then i'm having to resort to taunt + Challenging shout to pick up anything...to only have it leave me once again a few seconds later, which is more than frustrating!

From what you've written there, it sounds like you are relying on Thunderclap and Shockwave to do your AOE tanking for you. It's not enough. Kashak spelled it out pretty good in his post just previous, but to emphasise a few points:

Shield Slam is your highest threat move. Followed by Revenge (which can proc a free Shield Slam). Devastate is less priority but still important because it applies Sunder Armor and can also proc a free Shield Slam. For trash pulls, use the Tab key to target enemies individually, and use high threat moves on each one (Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate). Queue up Cleave on every swing (hits 2 targets). Don't forget stuff like Spell Reflect, Concussion Blow and Shield Bash. They are great for threat, and reduce the damage you take. Keep Thunderclap and Shockwave on cooldown, but that won't hold threat against DPS going balls to the wall AOE, or worse, single target DPS on different targets.

Warrior AOE tanking requires a lot of buttons! You'll get a good feel for it after a while, just get comfortable with the TAB key, remember to Cleave, and make sure you hit every mob with a big threat move every so often, on top of Thunderclap/Shockwave.

[Garshek]

If you're in the mindset of "every little bit helps" I will throw up a Demo Shout while they're all stunned from SW. Then I'll start a SS/Rev+cleave rotation and that seems to work really well for me. I have a macro that will do Revenge (if it's off CD) and queue Cleave (I have the cleave glyph). If revenge is on CD the macro just queues cleave.

For me an AoE Pull goes like this:

- Target 1 Mob for a Heroic Throw
- Charge a DIFFERENT mob
- T-Clap
- SS while I'm lining mobs up
- SW
- Demo Shout
- T-Clap (again)
- Tab to new target, SS
- Tab to new target Revenge/Cleave Macro

From there I'll continue to SS a new target everytime it is up and just rotate through the mobs. Also, if I see a mob start to break free from me I'll hit him with a Conc. Blow to stun and then he will be my next SS target. Perhaps it's a flaw in my AoE tanking but I RARELY use Dev. when I'm pulling packs like that, I find that it's not enough threat vs SS/Rev/SW to warrant using it. However, that does not apply to 2-pulls or bosses, AT ALL.

Not to hijack your thread but with regards to TC does it apply the same amount of threat everytime you use it? IE is it worth hitting it whenever you have a free GCD if it isn't on CD already, or is your rage and GCD better spent on single target threat moves like SS/Rev?

[Garshek]

Also, I like to keep name plates up on the mobs as well so I can track which one the DPS is burning hard so I know to keep my eye on that mobs aggro. I think it also helps with grabbing one quickly if it starts to run away, click a name plate is super easy!

[phoenix92]

im a pally tank i have some issues with agro if the dps breaks about 2.7k to 3k i am fairly under geard was just wondering if any experianced tanks could sugest a rotation or maybey a spec or gear ajustment.