New To Lich King Tanking

[Gorzantus]

Well just recently i got to level 80 and decided to give protection a try. every so often i get a comment in a random dungeon saying "your gear is too low for this" and it's jsut a regular heroic and i have 3.9k GearScore. Heroic Gun'Drak isn't Attuned for 5.7k GearScore people. But most of the time i get no comments and i get on with the dungeon. But one thing i have noticed is when i'm pulling 2-3 mobs i lose aggro sometimes. it isn't a big deal since i pick it up instantly but i hate losing aggro.
anybody know a good rotation to keep aggro of multimobs and perhaps some advice on my current equipment.

Armory: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...r&cn=Gorzantus
Thanks in Advance

[Starbuck]

First off, your gear is absolutely fine for any heroic dungeon. I don't know about the latest Icecrown ones, they might be harder but not impossible. Never tried them with less than 5k gs. Talent build is also good. You could move 3 p in Imp HS to Cruelty but
For being a fresh 80 you seem to have geared up pretty quickly. Get the Glyph of Indomitability as your next emblem piece. Go craft the boots, chest, bracers and belt if you can afford it, they will last you all the way to ICC. If you cant afford them, there is a few good pieces in hc dungeons to pick up on the way. Get the Sentinel's Winter Cloak for your first 50 frost badges and – hey – full epic.

Holding threat is harder these days, when dps is handing out crazy numbers. A few suggestions that might help you:

Mark a skull, just any mob so dps can focus on that. Which also means you can focus on that mob and get a good grip on it. If you have aoe heavy dps:ers that wont work ofc.

Vigilance the DK, or any high threat melee dps. I usually put vigilance on melee, because if they do get hit I instantly have taunt fresh. If a caster takes aggro it's easier to see and you can intercept/ intervene.

I try to stay ahead of the group, charging away before last group is all down. So I get a head start on next group. Backside of that is I'm also getting out of range from my healer. I tend to use some of my cooldowns here in the beginning of trash fights.

Make sure you have shockwave ready at the start of the fight as well.

Get the Glyph of Cleaving instead of the Devastate or HS one

Rotation should be something like this:
charge, (heroic throw any caster to silence them and make them come to you,) thunderclap, round them up and shockwave. Start working through the mobs tabbing, devastating and shieldslamming, cleave, cleave, TC whenever it's ready to use. Save SW for next pull.

And then, cheer for loot.

*$

[Amaranthine]

Starbuck hit the nail on the head. Your gear is fine, only tweak i would do to your current gear is trade out your str/def gem for a pure stam one, you can afford the drop in defense

If you can afford the crafted ToCr gear then get it, but no worries if you can't there are others you can pick up that will also last a while with triumph emblems.

If you can't afford the crafted bracers one of the first things i would get is the bracers from emblems of valor (you can trade down emblems quickly with the money changer in the underbelly).

For vigilance i usually through it on a lock, hunter,or DK, in that order of importance, just get OMEN if you don't have it, and keep an eye on ppl's TPS during fights and toss vig on whoever is the highest.

The reason i keep vig on ranged usually is because if a melee grabs aggro they can take a couple of hits before eating it, and in my 5 man experience if they pull aggro they'll have the target dead before you can ever switch targets and taunt.

Another gear suggestion, if you got a good guild, or some skilled friends i'd be chain running the new ICC isntances and ICC Heroics everyday, quite a few great drops in there.

Hope that helps, good luck!

[Muspel]

Personally, I'd recommend replacing Glyph of Heroic Strike with Glyph of Cleaving, and Glyph of Blocking with either Glyph of Shockwave (replace that with Glyph of Shield Wall when you start tanking raids, though). Glyph of Devastate is great, since it increases the amount of threat it causes.

I recommend running heroic Azjol-Nerub for the Essence of Gossamer trinket. It'll give you over 1k more health. I'm assuming you're working toward a T9 chestpiece. If you can afford it, Saronite Swordbreakers (bracers) are a great craftable item, but they're expensive. Try just buying the materials (they'll run you maybe 2k tops) and finding somebody to smith them for you. Also, run normal Forge of Souls for the Lucky Old Sun mace, as it's a nice tanking weapon.

[drae]

Get a group of guildies together and spend an afternoon doing the ICC 5mans, normal and heroic. There are a lot of decent drops in there.

Contrary to the posters above me, I would not recommend removing the devastate glyph, nor taking shockwave glyph. The point about cleaving glyph is excellent. Glyph of cleaving increases the targets of cleave by one, and makes 5 mans significantly easier. I'd recommend cleaving, devastate, and blocking.


-Gearwise, the tier 9 you've selected is the best choices imho. I'd pick up the Glyph of Indomitability (trinket), the Headguard of the Honorbound, and the clutch of fortification (ring).
-ICC 5 man instances have a shield on normal, and a weapon on heroic.
-If you haven't found a new breastplate by the time you've picked up the above badge gear, buy some crusader orbs (or once 3.3.3 hits, buy em with frozen orbs) and make the ToC chestplate. Or purchase the T9 Chest plate. The crafted one is better tho.
-Same with the ToC bracers. Breastplate > Bracers.
-I believe there's a tanking neck in ICC 5's or in ToC 5.

When it comes to gemming, stack stamina gems. Use enchants to get to the minimum defense rating. Your cloak and chest can both have defense enchants. Your bracers: 40 stamina, get a belt buckle for your belt.

I would take out the two points in cruelty and place them in Shield Spec for 5 mans, imp. disciplines for raiding.

As for AoE Tanking:
-Get Tidy Plates with the Threat plates addon. Tank with nameplates on. These name plates will change colours based upon how much threat you have. It makes tracking threat on multiple mobs a million times easier. The addon can be found at Wowinterface.com Personally I use my mouse to select targets rather then tab target, it allows for much more accurate target selection. Please don't say "but if I'm selecting targets with my mouse how do I click my skillz? you'll make me cry and rant about clickers!)
-Hit thunderclap ON EVERY COOLDOWN.
-Spam cleave as much as your rage allows. It's on next attack so mash it, it wont interfere with your normal rotation unless you rage starve yourself.
-Change targets frequently, focus on the target you think has the least threat. I usually drop a shield slam + dev or 2xdev on a mob then switch. Timing my thunderclaps in between.
-Charge, Thunderclap, position mobs, shockwave, position yourself, thunderclap.


Hope that helps! sorry it's so long winded!

[Starbuck]

Noticed a new cloak, gz. Put agility on it for threat, but armor or defense is probably better tank enchants. Change to mongoose on your weapon and when you got defense enough you can switch shield enchant to Titanium plating. Small things that adds up.

Good luck tanking!

*$

[Muspel]

Contrary to the posters above me, I would not recommend removing the devastate glyph, nor taking shockwave glyph.

I actually found the shockwave glyph to be quite useful in heroics. There aren't any other glyphs that offer noticeable benefits in heroics, and the biggest issue in heroics is holding AoE threat.

If he's raiding, I agree it's a poor choice, but he doesn't seem to be there yet.

[jh7468]

In regards to Vigilance, I have to agree with Amar that it is better suited on a caster, usually a mage or demo lock. If a melee DK or Warrior takes a little aggro, they have plate and can take a few shots until TC or SW is ready. Glyphing for it helps a lot, also, especially if you have a hotshot in your group. Glyphing for cleave will also help AoE threat, and you must keep Glyph of Devastate.

[Gorzantus]

upgraded some of my gear according to what has been said in this topic. thanks for all your help. i have noticed a major increase. and only ever lose threat in dungeons like the newer ICC heroic but otherwise i am tanking very well and progressing nicely into harder dungeons. i still need to upgrade a few glyphs before i am ready for any more raiding