Tanking through levels... Am I doing something wrong?

[Damazcus]

let me preface, I'm currently lvl 61 on my warrior, I've tanked before on my paladin (only lvl 71 I havent leveled him since WoTLK came out really...) but nothing too serious, I also have a 80 hunter with a high GS (about 5750or so)...

I'm finding it harder and harder to hold aggro as I progress through the levels on my warrior, and I like to make the tanking situation as optimal as possible... for instance... Last night i'm tanking Blood Furnace, a DK is using DnD... I ask him nicely to not use it twice, then our healer gets in my face about it being ok it's an dmg AoE and that fury warriors use heroic strike all the time so why does it matter... I told him the ability clearly states it is high threat, then I get shit from the rest of the group so I just leave.

Am I being difficult? or why do people need to be difficult? I always nicely ask people to make sure their pets growl/taunt is off, don't pull before me, etc etc... Is this what I have to look forward to is people always challenging the way I'm trying to accomplish something?

thank the old gods for instant dungeon finder queues for tanks...

[MellvarTank]

Well there is a few things to keep in mind: DnD is an AoE damage boost. Heroic Strike is single target. DK'S are alts of 80's and usually come with attitude.

If you ask someone not to do something and they keep doing it, let them die. If they kick you from the group, you can cue again right away instead of waiting 15 minutes for the deserter buff.

Check out Aggathon's prot warrior guide for specs/glyph choices and work off of that. It should give you the best threat possible at your level with appropriate gear. Really, I'd just try to work harder at holding aggro.

[Dasverlassen]

Put vigilance on high AoE threat DPS to help with holding threat on large packs of mobs.
Make sure you have your rotation down and are tabbing through targets to ensure you have a good amount of threat above the DPS.

Inevitably tanks get a lot of flaming from random players from another server, its just the way of things I suppose.
Just try to remember: it is NEVER the DPS's fault, lol.

[Damazcus]

Lol, I understand there are multiple ways of trying to hold aggro or ie use vigilance to negate some of their threat, but why does it have to come to that? I'd rather just drop group and find another... Sorry for the venting, I had back to back groups of people that knew everything I said was wrong... Kind of got to me since I consider myself a good tank and I rarely let a group wipe and I pull pretty fast while keeping an eye on the mana of the healer and casters... but it just felt like some people play this game to argue...

Also, I was using the glyph of sunder armor for a long time before I got dev, now I'm wondering if I should even use sunder armor or is it a waste? is it better to tab and dev then to sunder 2 targets at once?

[MellvarTank]

Get the glyph of devastate and the glyph of sunder armor, spec into improved revenge. SS>revenge>devastate.

More threat than you'll know what to do with.

[BruisedOoze]

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point, although it's irritating. You asked nicely and if the healer wants to deal with it he will. All you can do is try a little harder and ignore the hostile comments.

Also note that devastate applies a sunder to a neighbouring target when you have glyph of sunder.

[Damazcus]

Well, I appreciate the replies... Thank you for the threat advice also...

[Kurtosis]

I sympathize. Know-it-all Death Tards who think 'DnD is high dps!". When I lose patience with them, I reply 'Only noobs think AoE = dps, and only noobs use their highest threat modifier ability to dps. You do know what threat modifiers are, don't you?' That usually shuts em up, b/c they inevitably don't know. The ones who do, don't use DnD.

Edit: Pro dps will check the tank's gs, and if it's clearly someone still gearing up in Heroics, then they'll pick another dps to /assist and focus fire a single target. The name of the game is reducing dmg on the tank as quickly as possible by focus-firing single mobs at a time. If the tank is ICC geared, then AoE spam is fine.

[bling581]

It's fine to use DnD, just not right off the bat. I generally don't even use it on heroic 5 mans because A) stuff dies too fast anyway, which leads to B) if I wait to use it so I don't pull aggro it's just a waste.

[Metasynaptic]

A death knight dps should not be using DnD in general play.

When I dps on my DK, I only drop DnD when there is a huge trash group, (such as patrols or other adds, or some muppet doesn't position properly and attracts a nearby group) that is likely to have breaks from the tank shred the back line. Better the breaks hit me than the healer, I'm wearing plate and self healing with blood skills.

[BigPete]

I'm leveling up a Prot Pally, now level 77. There was a huge level range where I just couldn't keep up threat especially with Enhancement Shamans and some mages/locks who did lots of damage. As far as the DnD goes, it is a source of damage and should be used. At least this is according to EJ. I don't currently have any issues with threat even when a DK gets his DnD down before my consecrate. I'm not saying that DPS going balls out all the time and making things difficult is RIGHT... I'm only saying that it's an issue that should become easier as you level up, get better gear, and abilities.

The dungeon finder is awesome in some respects and not so awesome in others. I try to do my best but people really frustrate me sometimes. People are just generally rude and don't care about anything. One group will yell at you to "gogogogo" and the next will yell at you because you are going too fast. And as you experienced, when you try to tell someone nicely to not do something, they go off the deep end like its the end of the world.

My solution to threat issues? I downloaded tauntmaster to see who has threat and quickly use my taunt abilities on those mobs. Short of that I have taken the "learn 2 play" attitude and I just don't care. I'm not going to stress myself because other people can't be bothered to play properly. If I pull a pack of 4 and everyone is on a different mob then there isn't much I can do other than hope consecrate and my other AoEs produce enough threat. Most of the time if they die, they don't say anything. If they bitch or whine I tell them to either play properly or leave group if they don't like it.

[Mawini]

When leveling on my paladin, I typically had a 50%+ threat lead on every trash pack even with dps going all out. Are you sure you have RF up and are using proper rotations?