Fresh 80 Prot Tank... where to go now?

[WCF]

So I just hit 80 last night. 21.7k health unbuffed with 555 defense.

I've seen guides on how to get geared around here, but they seem mostly for people who have already gotten started and comfortable with heroics.

I thought the smart thing to do would be to run normals until I was comfortable enough with them to tank heroics. Of course, the random dungeon finder put me in Trial of the Champion where the healer immediately (before ever fighting anything) calls me a "fail" tank for being undergeared and tried to get me kicked.

This leaves me in a bit of a stagnate here. I've been doing heroic Utgarde Keep and Violet Hold once a day and despite what the healer in ToC said, I managed to do ToC twice as well, but no tank gear has dropped yet. Where do I go from here? Should I just jump into the random heroic finder? When I see my other, epic'd out teammates in the heroics I run it makes me a little wary of using the random heroic tool.

It's a little sad really. My warlock friend who I've consistently stayed leveling with for months has already gone on to bigger things while I feel stuck at the bottom because the gear expectations associated with the tank keeps me from doing things with him.

[Khanor]

There is alot to learn if you are just starting tanking. If you are looking for a basic guide, check around, they are all over tankspot. These guides will usually cover rotation, general tank theory, and basic gearing. The biggest thing to understand is that they are written by people who know what they are talking about, so while they may seem overwhelming at first, the information in them is good. If you dont understand it, start over from the beginning and read slower.

As far as what to do in your particular situation, keep at it! Gear you need sometimes wont drop for weeks at a time, and it gets frustrating, believe me (25+ marrowgar kills and no tank neck yet) i know. The joy of your stage of gearing is that no matter what pace you go at, you will get emblems. In heroics, you may run into dps that pulls off you, and they may be rude about it, but remember, its not a big deal. If a dps pulls something, they are geared enough to survive tanking it. Instead of taunting it back, use this time to practice your rotation. See if you can pull it back off them without cheating. If its on the healer, definitely taunt, but even then examine why it ended up on the healer, and how you can prevent it. This stage for you should be highly experimental (everything from keybinds to how to handle different types of pulls - casters, non casters, etc).

Finally, check out this video by Ciderhelm. I link it to all new tanks seeking advice, as it is one of the best videos I have found and can really help jump start your tanking career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf1pWQhJdhQ

[WCF]

Thanks for the advice, Khanor. I used to play rather extensively during vanilla and was a healer. This is my first time tanking (and also my first time playing through WoTLK material) and I've done it somewhat frequently up to level 80. I like to think I'm competent enough.

So far today, I've done some heroics, all of which with rather little effort. Utgarde Keep, Violet Hold, Gundrak, Culling of Stratholme, and the Nexus. However, as soon as I got into Halls of Stone, both healers immediately dissed me. The first immediately left. The next one came in, told us we were going to wipe because of me, did one pull and left (we did indeed wipe...although I suspect he wasn't trying).

This is a little sickening to me. The second healer I recognized from several normal instances I did a while ago and our groups were, as far as I can tell, flawless.

I'm feeling a bit of a catch 22 here, where gear is required to do instances but instances are required for gear. What am I supposed to do here?

I'm really starting to feel the pressure of the tanking role now; it's so visible. My DPS friend, who also just hit 80 with me last night with similar gearscore, has run several Trial of the Champions just today and has already earned himself a couple epics. I, on the other hand, would get kicked out of anything like that and am having to crawl my way through low-end heroic instances for little reward. What gives?

[Tinytankz]

Check my sig

EDIT: tnaking heroics is how you get comfortable just dump your self in there and make sure you taunt anything that goes torwards your healer and thats all you HAVE to really worry about.

[Shieldie]

this probably isnt really the best advice.. but its 3.43am and im super tired but...

your best bet is to make a healer friend who doesnt mind healing you. you are geared enough for any regular besides the icc5mans and any pre 3.2 (toc) heroic

alot of pug healers are lazy and just wanna get carried through an instance while they throw an ocassional FoL / lesserheal / whatever and not have to worry about tanks. I can understand this, being so far into the xpac.. but my philosophy is dont queue if you dont feel like playing :P
befriending a healer will make this part of your tanking career so much easier. as for the dps, its natural that t10 geared people would pull from a fresh 80 tank. in my ret set I can tank nearly every wotlk heroic, so im sure losing threat to a dps warr or dk or paladin wont cause a wipe immediately, just taunt when you can, and try to maximize the efficiency of each pull. mark if you have to, it makes things easier, if people pay attention that is...

besides that... dont let jerks discourage you, if you are playing correctly, and still have threat / survivability issues, its just gear you need, and thats what you are working for dont feel bad about losing impatient jerks, you are a tank, i promise your time in queue is faster :P

[Creelos]

The stats you mention are fine for all of the original WotLK 5 man heroics and any one that tells you they are not doesn't know a damn thing about being a tank.

Most players don't have a clue about tanking, and from what I have seen in daily randoms, several of them don't even have clue about their own role. It takes a pretty thick skin to be a tank so just ignore those that think you are under geared when you are in fact appropriately geared for what you are intending to do.

Oh and it may have been almost four am but your advice looks pretty spot on to me Shieldie.

[UdderTank]

Prior to taking I spent a lot of time in heroics gearing a Healer (you can dual spec a pally/druid) to gain knowledge of the instances. It is also a good way to get some tank gear without tanking the instance. Once I knew the instances pretty well and had a bit of decent gear I started hitting randoms as a tank.

Yes, you will get some jerks who will complain you are going too slowly, will pull for you, and will pull off of you. If worse come to worse, quit out and get another group who is a bit more understanding. I used to always give a disclaimer at the beginnings of a heroic with my new pally tank "I have crummy tank gear, if your gear is a lot better than mine, give me a few seconds to build up threat before you go hog wild with your dps". Most of the time people would listen. The majority of issues I've had was with other plate wearers who just decided to tank the instance themselves- for a pally tank this really screws up our mana regen.

[Jamesondrinker]

First off, dont let the A-holes discourage you, any dps that is well geared needs to know that in heroics which they VASTLY overgear, there are going to be people that don't plain obliterate the gear requirements. So they should know that they cant dps right off the bat when your running with a less geared tank, so if they don't realize that, give them a little hint/reminder. If they don't take the hint, well it sucks but you just have to deal with it and hope they leave.

Second, Shieldie is pretty right on. If your in a guild i would highly recommend getting someone to run with you regularly. If not then you could try looking in trade....probably not the best chances but you never know, but the most important thing is to keep going and keep growing as a tank and not letting all the "gems" in the random finder discourage you.

[Hoogle]

WCF - WELCOME TO LEVEL 80 TANKING! (and all the crap that comes with it)

Stick to it bro, I recently dinged my lvl 80 proc warrior too and had ups and down moments with him.

Do lots of ICC norm dungeons and TOCs till you feel confident. Then just HC farm. I made a macro that said 'hey guys, I'm a newly dinged 80. I'm def capped but my gears still a bit crappy so go easy on me. wont be offended if you want to leave the party '

EVERYONE was understanding and patient after that

Good luck bro

[drae]

Your geared enough bro, I tanked naxx 25 with those stats. People are lazy jerks at this point in the expansion. If the LFD puts you in it, you can do it.

[WCF]

Thanks for all the responses and advice, guys.

This past week has moved pretty fast for me in WoW. The first day and a half of level 80 was brutal. More than a handful of healers (and only healers, go figure) had been rather rude about my gear. I can't say that their accusations were very tangible; in most cases we did fine. In fact, their elitism, bad attitude, or sheer laziness was often more of an issue than mine (or anyone else's) gear would ever be.

Generally speaking, I think I've noticed that tanks have to be rather tough people, or, at the very least, dismissive or ignorant. You are the one controlling where your group heads and where to pull; no one else in the group has as much responsibility. I led two groups through HoL and both wiped around the same area due to my inexperience with the instance. I think I know better methods now, but if it wasn't for the encouragement around these forums, I'm not sure I would have had the will to keep trying to tank.

Also, I have to disagree about this game being too "casual" now. If I had played like a casual, my gear would never have improved to meet the expectations of others. I would not have known or studied the layouts, pulls, and boss mechanics of these instances. The only way to get things going was to consistently grind heroics day in and day out. Tanking = not for casuals.

[sifuedition]

True, tanking is the most resistant to casuals, however, it's not casual "proof". That is part of the reason you had so much grief from healers. Believe me, they see casual (fake) tanks all the time who didn't put in the work you did and it speaks well for you (as a tank) that you did.

My RL friend rolled a dk tank and I would go on my Druid. This let me actually dps for a change Ina random but I could heal if the healer was a jerk. Every time a healer mouthed off, I would reply "it's sad you have all that gear and can't keep up a heroic geared tank in a heroic". That usuaally shut them up but sometimes they would ninja-quit on a pull. No loss since I was there to heal. Don't need that attitude in a group anyways.