so I'm a lvl 15 Warrior, I Q'd as TANK, my LFG is ready, I run into my first mob...

[wórg]

what do I do?

I've read countless articles about tanking. they all appear to be for 60s-80s.

I'm not a new to wow, but I am new to tanking. All those days I just hung on the back topping up health as a resto druid I wish I'd paid more attention.

I considered learning to tank with my druid, but having no gear, and everyone at 80 expects you to be an expert, as soon as the instance starts.

So reading some of the articles there were numerous recommendations to level up as a tank, to learn the craft. I figured what the heck, cata's out, I want a worgen, I want a warrior, lets roll...

erm, how do I do it?

if anyone can point me to a good lowbie article it'd be appreciated. I need to know what I'm trying to achieve and how to do it with the limited toolset you get as you start.

thanks,
your friendly newbie worgen.

howl

[Bovinity]

Well, at lower levels there's really not much of a toolbox yet. At level 15 you have what, Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap and Shield Slam?

Shield Slam is pretty much your bread and butter, it's very powerful single target threat and damage. Thunder Clap is good for a little bit of threat on groups, but you'll be struggling with larger groups for a while at those levels. The tools just aren't there yet. You're basically just using Shield Slam on cooldown and Heroic Strike when you have the rage. Thunder Clap to help with groups or for the debuff on bosses.

At 18 you'll get Sunder Armor which makes it a little easier to spread threat around multiple mobs or build quick threat on a single mob. Until then you're basically at the mercy of the Shield Slam cooldown and your damage output.

[wórg]

Hey thanks for your reply. Really helpful to get some specific help.

Is there a priority system for who I have to target first, in a mob?

Take deadmines for instance. If i pull a mob of 4, Do I target one at a time and bring them down, move to next target, rinse and repeat, or should I be constantly shifting target?

Also should I keep my movement quite limited?

I really upset a pug last night by being totally underprepared, and incapable of holding aggro.

Sorry to them.

[Eoika]

Uhhh... You normally lead the dps around on which mob to kill first. Unless they all unanimously agree you're wrong and all attack a different target. After awhile Tanking just starts to become a fluid motion and doesn't require a taught-process once you get used to.

[Bovinity]

Take deadmines for instance. If i pull a mob of 4, Do I target one at a time and bring them down, move to next target, rinse and repeat, or should I be constantly shifting target?

It might seem silly, but at these levels it might be very helpful to mark a first kill target with a skull. It's very hard for you to "spread" threat around with the limited toolbox you have at those levels, so marking one target that you're focusing your initial single target threat on will be helpful. Thunder Clap should be enough to hold the rest of the group while you burn the first one down.

[wórg]

So no need to tab, attack, tab, attack tab, attack? Before a target is dead. Just stick to once target and knock him down before moving onto the next in the mob.

It all went by so fast, I seemed to be hammering keys like a woodpecker. I'm gonna need a new keyboard by Christmas at this rate! :-/

Are your fingertips burning after an instance? Or am I working way too hard?

[wórg]

It might seem silly, but at these levels it might be very helpful to mark a first kill target with a skull. It's very hard for you to "spread" threat around with the limited toolbox you have at those levels, so marking one target that you're focusing your initial single target threat on will be helpful. Thunder Clap should be enough to hold the rest of the group while you burn the first one down.

Yeah I want to build some good habits from day one. I've mapped my Fkeys to skull cross etc now.

Do I just choose willy nilly a target from the trash mob, or is there a priority system?

[Reev]

Just to clarify to the OP, a "mob" is a single monster, not a "mob" of monsters, like you might expect. If you hear people talking about mobs, they are talking about each individual creature.

[Reev]

So no need to tab, attack, tab, attack tab, attack? Before a target is dead. Just stick to once target and knock him down before moving onto the next in the mob.

It all went by so fast, I seemed to be hammering keys like a woodpecker. I'm gonna need a new keyboard by Christmas at this rate! :-/

Are your fingertips burning after an instance? Or am I working way too hard?

Tabbing through mobs is good once you're a little higher level. For now, I'd say focus on one mob and let your Thunderclap take care of the others. If the other players don't follow your marked target, they WILL pull off of you at your level regardless of what you're doing. At later levels, you'll have more tools, and the damage of the DPS classes will have normalized somewhat, so it'll start being worthwhile to spread your threat around and tab through the targets, but you should always be in the habit of marking one target and putting the majority of your efforts on that target.

If people are pulling the targets that aren't marked as skull off of you, it's their own damn fault, frankly, unless they're a healer.

[Bovinity]

It sounds like you may be overthinking it a bit. =)

You're pretty much just trying to build as much threat as you can on a mob with the limited tools you have. It's very rare at lower levels that trash is going to have special mechanics you have to prioritize for or anything, you pretty much pick a mob and go at it. The lower levels are supposed to be for practice!

[wórg]

Just to clarify to the OP, a "mob" is a single monster, not a "mob" of monsters, like you might expect. If you hear people talking about mobs, they are talking about each individual creature.

Oh... Whoops! Thanks man. I'm just so used to hanging in the back keeping everyone alive with my resto Druid, so spent little time focused on what we're killing.

Thanks for posting!

[wórg]

Hey thanks everyone for replying, I'll go annoy some pugs this week, and tryout your recommendations.

I'll report back at some point, might have a few more questions if thats cool.

Thanks again
Wórg

[Errvalunia]

One thing that will make your life way easier and make you relax a little is using good addons, like Tidy Plates: Threat Plates. This is useful in ALL specs, because you tell the addon "I am a tank" and it makes the nameplates small and green and happy when you DO have aggro, and turn yellow then red when you LOSE aggro; if you tell the addon "I am a DPS or healer" then nameplates are white before the tank has touched them, small and green when somebody besides you has aggro, and yellow then red when you pull aggro.

For me it was really hard getting used to "glowing red nameplates is good" while tanking, and Threat Plates really helps. Seeing the NOT glowing red nameplate in a sea of glowing red is hard... seeing the big red nameplate in a sea of green ones is easy-peasy! And they turn yellow BEFORE you lose aggro completely.

I REALLY recommend this addon to give you better situation awareness and, honestly, help you relax a bit. It helps me if everything is easier to see relax, because I'm not looking so closely at the mess of mobs in front of me.

[Bigs]

rend
devastate
clap

[Testosterone]

Since I also rolled a warrior for tanking and I begun today, may I emphasize on speccing 2 points in blood and thunder and just go in the caster mob's face, rend then thunderclap as soon as all the mobs are on you?
Then you just shield slam or tab+taunt in case any mob runs away to hit the healer or someone in distance. I'm gonna soon ding 18 and sunder armor will really help.

[shiver]

This is an invaluable thread for me.

I have also spent most of my WoW time in the background healing as a resto druid. To a large extent this has given me tunnel vision where even on dungeons I have run countless times, I still don't know the combinations of mobs or their specific abilities. All I see is little boxes...

I have been wanting to get into tanking for a long time, but knowing how demanding other players can be of perfection and me not wanting to ruin their fun, has put me off a little. I also made the mistake of RAFing my warrior up to 60 without having run any dungeons which leaves him in about the same position as my druid.

@wórg
It would be really awesome if you could document your adventures tanking your way to 85. I know it would be a really useful resource for me and perhaps a few others. Regardless, good luck and have fun.

Thanks to everyone posting in this thread.

[Blodgrahm]

personally at the lower level tanking for warriors i found the blood and thunder talent points to be very useful. i would suggest specing into that and then starting off with shield slam, rend, thunder clap, and then just tab around a little bit while using shield slam and heroic strike also make sure to renew your thunder clap every so often to keep your rend up and you should be more than fine

[kungfugrip]

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...011#post478011

i know you are still low but will give you a bit of an idea

[Selene]

As to Target Priority.
I personally pick any mob that is a Healer to burn down first, then any casters or mobs that have nasty attacks.

[Relem]

at low level only one thing will make you an (atleast) normal tank.

The ability to Tab and devastate(sunder armor) every mob in the group.
Also, meanwile dps have some good ability, as a tank, shieldslam is just a single targhet skill.

I just preferred to have shockwave....