Starting tanking for the first time since 3 years.

[Akahnu]

Hello Tankspot ,

after 3 years following the ways of 'teh dps' I've decided I'd like to change things for once. I've never tanked before and thus are an absolute 'newb' at it.

I've read several guides on here but they seem to be a tad confusing , I'm merely looking for a few simple questions.

-What spec ? In the guides I've read several and each have their positive and negative features , which would be a good one for a starter such as myself ?

-Gear : http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...Dawn&cn=Akahnu

Yes,

It's awful. No Tanking gear at all , don't even get me started on the weapons. Having abandoned WoW for a looong time sure gave me some problems , most people seem to be 6 times better geared as myself.

I take it Tier 9 (badges) and doing heroics is the best option for now ? Hm , yes.

-Rotation , Macro's wot ? These days I see tanks using lots of macro's , this is something new for me and I'd hope someone could point me to a good rotation including these macro's which ofcourse fits the spec.

That's all...I guess. I know I should of been reading the guides instead of posting here but it all seems too advanced and new to a Vanilla player like myself. I guess things changed

[Bashal]

Get the blue tanking craftables from blacksmithing.

Use a spec like this: Spec

Some people prefer to run with different major glyphs.

I'll leave it up to someone else a little more knowledgeable to comment on possible macros/threat rotation.

Edit: Altered the spec a bit.

[Inaara]

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...-Tanking-Guide is excellent for starters. Your best path for gearing is through chain running heroics, it'll be a little hard since you don't have a good tanking set. Try to get into pug raids that will allow you to pick up tank gear as a DPS and just run your little heart out.

There is no Tanking rotation anymore, rather it's a priority list.

[Bashal]

I like that chart.

If I read it correctly, it's specifying a priority rotation of Shield Slam>Revenge>Devastate>Concussion Blow>Shockwave, with SS being conditional on a S&B proc after the opening one?

[Eisen]

Sorta.

Shield slam whenever it is up. The 4.5 second sequence of steps above takes into account the cooldown on shieldslam if SnB does NOT proc.

Basically, shield slam whenever it's up
Revenge when it's not
Devastate when that's not
Then blow CB and Shock if they are up, and repeat the cycle.

Also note this is single target only; you'll need to spam TC whenever it's off cooldown in aoe situations. HS and/or Cleave should be used if you have excess rage, as well.

Also also note that technically if you use Gylph of devastate (prior to the new patch 3.3.3 soon to come out at least) it is superior on threat to Revenge, and you can remove that from your rotation id so. However the new patch will make revenge much stronger, and a lot of us are gonna be doing respecs.

[Inaara]

The chart is a little outdated in regards to CB. With the damage reduction CB recieved in the last patch you can just remove it from the list.

[Aggathon]

The damage on CB was reduced, but the threat was left the same, so it's the same threat so you can keep it in, however until 3.3.3 you can drop revenge since atm devastate is more tps and dps per use than revenge.

[Akahnu]

I guess the best way to start is maintaining Fury and grinding heroics for gear ?

The Lucky Sun in normal Forge of souls seems like a great tank weapon to start with

[Akahnu]

Small question :

How does multiple mob tanking work ? (2+)

For example , in Forge Of souls. How does one tank a group of 5 of those warlocks ? Spam TC ?

[Aggathon]

TC - Shockwave, and Cleave. You really need to be tabbing around the mobs and dropping shield slams and devastates on mobs that the dps are pulling away on. Vigilance either an AoE or someone who seems to be challenging your threat a lot. A creative use of shield block is good because it doubles your block value causing your damage shield to hit for more and giving you slightly better AoE threat. Also glyphs: cleave, blocking, devastate. Cleave is huge, high cleave uptime, especially while glyphed can make a word of difference.