Warrior Tanks!! What's your best tip?

[berec]

Really itching to know if any Prot Wars have good/unique tips or tricks up their sleeves. Not a gearing or rotation tip as there is plenty of research to answer those questions. But just an interesting (or not so interesting) trick that you do that you think makes you a better tank.

For instance:

Playstyle tricks?
"I have "target Nearest Enemy" bound to the mouse wheel "scroll down" ...since I press the mouse will down to run this allows me to target on the move very easily"

Favorite Macros?
"I like to use a taunt/Mocking Blow macro on Saur...quick double tap is convienant for those annoying taunt misses...by the time Mocking Blow is done, taunt almost of cooldown again." or "If you Macro Dev/HS to the same key you'll never spam HS again" or "I like to keep Shield block macro'd to Shield Slam on fights I don't need it for a specific cool down..this ensures that SB will be up the max 25% of the encounter"

Must have addons?
"If your not AoE tanking with Tidy plates: Treat...your not AoE tanking"

So how about it? Do you have a unique (not "Stack Stam cause stam good" ) tip you think other Prot War tanks should know?.....namely me?

Thank you

[Metasynaptic]

2 best tips I can think of relate to vigilance and heroic strike.

Make sure heroic strike is bound to a key that is easy to get to everytime you need to. macroing it isn't a good idea as you will get rage starved, and mouse clicking isn't a good way to be fast. get heroic strike on a key in easy reach.


Most guys know to stick vigilance on the top scoring DPS, but that isn't easy to see without add ons. Vig a mage or lock, then after 1 or 2 fights, vig the top scoring dps. You'll need a dps counter like recount for this.


No Vig and poor heroic strike use are common among less skilled tanks.

[Zaitochi]

When it comes to Vigilance it depends on who is the highest on Omen or DPS meter, usually my first choice is a hunter because they do so much threat and damage its crazy!

As for play style I'm pretty odd when it comes to tanking, I usually charge, SS, cleave + TC and shockwave to line them up for AoErs.

For boss fights like Saurfang I usually Shield block when its my turn to taunt and I tell ya it helps out the healers a bit by reducing incoming damage.

[MellvarTank]

I read tankspot a lot, and don't dismiss in game tips from other tanks... even bad ones. Evaluate and later dismiss maybe, but not immediately.

[Aggathon]

Imo, best playstyle trick: Tank something that you are significantly undergeared for, but make sure you have a good healer, even if you have to put on crap blues, it will teach you how to manage your cooldowns like a pro in order to survive. Imo cooldown management makes the difference between a good tank and a great tank.

[mangaart1st]

Learn to be spatially aware.

This is probably the biggest issue I see with new upcoming tanks. They have healed/dps'ed for so long that they get that rotation tunnel vision. Tanking requires you to be more so aware of your surroundings then any other class. You have to know where your current threats are, where new threats can potentially come from, where are the pats patrolling ect.

It's generally the tanks job to do the pulls and set the flow/pace of the instance. You have to be able to take the lead of your group and pace it to your ability not to the dps's. Lastly, read up on bosses/instances. Knowledge is power to tank. The more you know about the in's and out's of a boss the better prepared you are for things not going as planned. A good tank can take a BIG mistake and usually keep the group together and get the kill. A bad tank can cause a fairly MINOR mistake to end up as a wipe.

Warrior specific. Learn to really utilize Intercept, Intervenne and Charge to increase your mobility. This is the one thing warriors have over all other tanks, our Mobility.

[Uprise]

i was eagerly searchin for a post like this and i just have to say how dissapointed i am at how little replys this post got...i was realLY lookin forward to see warrioir exclusive tankin tips n tricks. idk.. i gues ill throw in my trick i use Healbot. and i use it to intervene... healbot shows u who has aggro with that begin helpfull itself when u left click on a palyer box it automatically faces you towards them. that also being very helpfull, pls warriors... put up more of ur tricks..

[Aberen]

I use grid and clique with my tank. Easy vigilance swapping (right click for me), easy intervene (shift right click).

A Nameplate addon is my biggest trick, I don't tab target, I click target mobs with the lowest health.

Saurfang...I tank second, so I can shockwave adds, also, after first taunt I vigilance the other tank. This gives me instant taunt refresh, and I can taunt adds off of ranged dps if they are getting too close.

Finally, I use my warbringer talent to death. shift 1 is charge, shift 2 is intercept. If I get knocked back or up, I charge back to get out of fall damage. Falling from a cliff? Charge any mob when you get close, Intervene a friend. I also use charge and intercept to stun lock. Just shockwave, strafe away, charge in, wait a few secs, conc. blow, strafe away, intercept, repeat.

[Tonk]

My best tip is this (in addition to all that was said above):

Relax and do not be a dbag.

So many tanks out there get offended easily by people making mistakes or are just plain Prima Donas. Do not be like them. Like someone said, the tank sets the pace, but he can also set the mood for the run. Make it an enjoyable experience for your group and people will want you for their runs in the future.

The "Relax" part will allow you to be more aware of what is going on around you, and make the whole tanking experience enjoyable.

[kaydubbleu]

Here are a few things I do, not in any particular order or all Warr specific just a list of good things to keep in mind that I have seen other Warrs/Tanks not be so good at.

• Keep Debuffs Up - ThunderClap and Demoralizing Shout should be part of your rotation when they fall off
• Keep Spell Reflect on Cooldown when dealing with Magic fights
• Interrupt,Interrupt,Interrupt!!!!!
• The pull is important! Dont just charge every pack blindly! Pulls that have 2/3 casters (Trash in FoS), Charge closest caster and Shield Bash, Run to 2nd mob while Heroic Throwing 3rd mob to bring em into a pretty little pack.
• Know your mobs, if there is 1 caster and 3 melee, charge the caster to avoid him being stray
• Throw Shield Block up before Shield Slam to get a big modifier when possible
• Learn your defensive cooldowns, gotta know how to stay alive, healers will love you if you help them by knowing when to use Bloodrage, Shield Wall, Last Stand, Enraged Regen, Trinkets etc..(Make sure you use Last Stand and Commanding Shout BEFORE Regen)
• Use food, flasks and potions when raiding. always.
  

[Bung]

Trick 1-Keep glyphs with you and switch when appropriate. Sunder armor, cleave, and devastate for trash and add control. Shield wall, last stand, blocking for hard hitting bosses. Taunt glyph if not hit capped on important taunt fights. etc....

Trick 2-Don't fight for aggro with other tanks-Find the most dangerous mob and focus on it during trash pulls. When it dies taunt one add at a time off other tank to spread damage.

Trick 3-Make 3 macros. One is an "oh no's" macro which casts everything to save your butt (shield wall, last stand, use fel healthstone, use 13, use 14, enraged regeneration, shield block. Another one is a "mash" macro which includes cleave, thunder clap, sunder armor and NOT heroic strike(see guides on this site). Last macro is a single target macro that includes heroic strike, shield slam, devastate. This last one is hella useful when having to kite backwards and put up high aggro.

Trick 4. Vig a warlock or mage if there is one. Other than that highest dps. Also you can vig the other tank for fights that require lots of taunts on your part.

Trick 5-Space out your cool down usage on fights. If you are taunt switching on a fight and will only have the boss for a few minutes at a time you can use shield wall, enraged regeneration, last stand, trinket(s), or indestructable potion. You shouldn't really ever just NOT use them cause the healers seem to be doing fine. Make them a part of your routine so that every time you have aggro on bosses there is always something helping your healers. Obviously if the fight calls for some major protection at a specific time save them for that situation.

Trick 6-Switch trinkets depending on what type of damage you will be taking. For magic damage you want as much stamina as you can stack. For non magic damage stack armor trinkets.

[Crittable]

Just as Aberen says, my tip is using Grid + Clique for intervene and vigilance.
Pay attention to Omen at all times. Swap vigilance to those who are getting close on Omen with just a single click on grid (i use left click for vigilance, right click for intervene).
A tip for certain encounters, like Sindragosa meta achievement... if you have to get away fast, with a single click on grid you can intervene someone who is just coming into your range, which you can tell with grid. Also, you can tell when one gets agro whom you also can intervene.
A lot of tanks don't think of using the Grid raidframes for anything other than seeing when someone is dead. Use it to your full potential.

[Deadgypsy]

It may sound like common sense but the most important tip I have is to communicate what your doing to your party/raid. It lets them adapt or plan their actions based on what your doing.

[Vlad]

Warriors are easily the most fun tanks to play, someone said about mobility.. dear god I wish I had it on my DK.

My DK can survive things a Warrior can't, but by god Warriors are fun and stacked with utility.

1. Spec for survival not dps, no-one except you cares about your dps.
2. Spam this macro
   #showtooltip Devastate
   /cast devastate
   /cast heroic strike
   
   Who runs out of rage anyways?
3. Spell reflect is usually useless for fights that matter
4. Know the boss abilities and which CD is best suited, don't just throw SW when block would have got it done.
5. TClap is a really powerful threat tool when used properly
6. Bind all your main abilities to keys you don't have to look at to find (I use a 5 button mouse as well as KB binds), clickers are bad.
7. Tanking is very situational, know when you're not the best class tank for the job.. ie: don't be a hero when someone else has a better chance of getting the job done. Just tuck your pecker back in your pants.. you'll have your chance to shine.
8. Learn to play fast, chain pulling is good practice for the whole raid and teaches everyone to be onto it.

[Malloy]

Thunder clap, thunder clap, THUNDER CLAP! Leveling a baby hunter, I have been seeing a lot of Prot warriors who thunder clap maybe once a pull. With all the AoE and multi-mob pulls in lowbie dungeons there needs to be more thunder clap. And please, if you are serious about tanking as a warrior, go 3/3 in Imp Thunder clap. Its nothing but lowbie dungeon goodness.

[ironsides]

Alot of people have mentioned using vigilance for threat and also talked about intervene, not sure why nobody mentioned intervene lowers the target threat by 10% so it could be a decent idea to use it on somebody before they pull agro and not after (just in case everyone doesn't know).

Vigilance will only be helpful on offtanks starting today just a reminder so don't worry about it too much.

Personally a tip I would give is PvPing. Seriously just run a ton of BGs, wear your regular prot gear. Not only is it fun but you learn alot about how to survive difficult situations and overall it improves your situational awareness and reaction time. People said interupt, well pvping is an easy way to learn how to do that much better same for spell reflect and your mobility.

Don't be scared to run a dungeon here and there even if you out gear it also, practice makes perfect. I am in nearly full BiS and am enjoying the practice dungeons give me. (someone talked about chain pulling, this could help you learn to pull faster as well)

Also I know this might sound like a dumb piece of advice but i assure you not every warrior knows that enraged regeneration only works when your enraged. With the removal of blood rage if you are somehow dieing and not enraged, dots or pvping or w\e pop beserker rage for the enrage effect and then use health regen. Edit: I just realized with changes being made to our enrage mechanic it's only a 20% chance to get enraged on hit, so it might not be up all the time, making this better advice than i originally thought.

Personally for boss fights I use heroic throw + charge instead of just charging because I get a lil extra threat. Sometimes I do a little spin in the air after I heroic throw and then charge because it looks cool also. =P

For actual fights, and not all specific to warrior tank (and I know this isn't what the poster was looking for or the bumper, he obviously wants like tricks of the trade.) Personally just communicate with your other tanks, it's important that the tanks communicate not only with the raid but with each other as well. Know who is tanking what, know what way you are moving out of fire on marrowgar (Btw it's not terrible to intervene the MT on marrow if your OTing and you can't find him. A little threat loss is better than a dead tank.) Any fight with an interupt do so as often as you can, many tanks leave it up to dps to do it but why not show yourself as a competent player? Use beserker rage to get out of fears(bql) intervene to remove slows/frost breath(sindy) USE SHIELD BLOCK APPROPRIATELY amazing for Halion when the add is up if you are on top, the damage reduction on both the add and the boss is awesome. Use addons with timers, it's great when you get a warning to taunt on saurfang but alot better when you know it's coming. Use indestructible potions appropriately as well, halion up top you can have a pot up almost the whole time you are tanking, use one right before the pull and after p3 starts, for LK if im on shamblings I prefer using my pot as soon as a second shambling spawns.

Most importantly as somebody said have fun, warrior tanks have a huge arsenal, lots of fun abilities and can be very enjoyable to play. Have fun, do content that is challenging, learn to use the CDs, and when all else fails charge around as much as possible to make it look like you are doing something productive.