Help me gain some confidence in dungeons!

[Toll]

Ok first of all I want to thank anyone who takes time to help me out with this. The issue I am having is that I am terrified of letting people down in a dungeon and getting booted or harassed. I've only been playing a week, and I am really trying to learn the ropes. I thought I was getting OK, but at the end of my last dungeon 2 people said i sucked I have the stats and thought that perhaps they can be used to tell me where I am going wrong.

Damage Done: 1st w/ 34.8%
DPS:2nd w/ 28.7% (maybe worthwhile to note that the two people who said I was lacking both queued as DPS and came up 3rd and 4th in DPS, so I have considered that they may not be experts, but the problem of dungeon shyness persists)
Damage Taken: 1st w/ 71.2%

We did wipe once, but that was equally my fault (for not paying attention and using lay on hands when I was nearly dead) and the healers fault (the healer also was new to healing and said so) but my understanding is that wiping is part of running a dungeon sometimes.

So do I just blow this off? How do I learn the maps and bosses when I queue for RDF and don't know what dungeon I am going to get? Is it simply impossible for someone to get into WoW at this point in the games life? I am really enjoying it, and don't want to quit, but if I can't run the dungeons then I can't gear up, and if I can't gear up then I won't be good enough to run dungeons.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. I am not used to playing games with others, and I know that the tank is a super important role in the group and I want to do it well. Thanks again for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to any advice I get from more experienced players.

Oh and because it may be useful, heres a link to the armory http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...tollers/simple

[Destruyen]

just blow it off imo. people using the random dungeon finder at that level are leveling alts or new to the game so you can't expect everyone to be an expert at their role or class. as long as you hold aggro fairly well and not have mobs beating on the healer all the time and not pull a ton of mobs at once you should be ok. some people are just assholes and they seem to all play wow in the random dungeon finder so don't listen to them. you might even luck out and get a healer or dps that has played a tank before and is in the mood to give you some tips and see how you play.

as for where to go in dungeons i think blizz has put in full maps for the low level dungeons by now with boss locations marked with skulls. there is also a strategy guide for vanilla wow and bc by bradleygames or something like that in most gamestop/walmarts that you can pick up if you really want to get the ins and outs of old world dungeons and their layouts....

if you are always afraid of letting people down then that is the best thing going for you as a tank imo. those tanks seem to always be better than others since they rarely screw up once they learn a fight/new class.

[Zee786]

Completely agree with the above. If you are worried about strategies then maybe take a peak at wowpedia before the boss to get a quick idea of what to do.

[Michultradk]

You are in the same boat I was in 1.5 years ago, and it takes being humble and having thick skin to make it as a tank but it can be done.

I didn't even know about helpful websites like this one until I was way up in level, so you are on the right track.

First, start training yourself to look for the right gear, Pally tanks do not need hit, haste, agility or Crit on their gear, make sure you are not just trading a piece in because it is a little higher in item level. Look for dodge, parry, strength and stamina, a pally can have some intellect but after a while you will see that there is certain gear designed for that character. People inspect you right when you come in and when they see certain stats, coupled with the fact that you are somewhat shaky, they will certainly abuse you.

But some cheap enchants for the AH, tank enchants with stamina, dodge and parry. Have some pots, flask and food on hand and use them if possible, again stamina dodge and parry.

Tank, tank and more tanking. Read sites like these and try to understand everything you can about tanking and holding aggro.

Be humble, make a macro that says; This is my first tank, help and tips appreciated. Most, read it most, people will help you, but some will just give you a hard time. These are people with multiple level 85 toons and they are trying to get to 85 as quick as possible, so dont let it bother you. Come back here and ask more specific questions when you need to, but make sure to have specifics about rotation and itemization about your toon. DOnt forget to level your professions along the way, they bring certain attributes that will help your tanking.

Good luck and have fun.

[Sythar]

What people have said +10000 ^^^

Personally I have found that the dungeon finder turns people into incredibly selfish douche-bags who love to moan at everything. As soon as you spot something like this just ignore them, you will most likely never be grouped with them again. Your the tank, pull at your own pace and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[Toll]

Thank you so much for all the replies! Its good to know that at one point in time others have suffered from performance anxiety. My husbands solution was to just play DPS, but I am not ready to give up just because things are difficult right now.

I ordered the Brady Dungeon Companions to help me out. I think knowing my way around the dungeons will help a lot. Knowing what stats to look for in gear is going to help too. I must admit to switching my gear based on ilvl and gearscore and not much else

Anyway, I guess jerks will be jerks. I do need to develop some thicker skin. Being such a wuss seems counter to the spirit of being a tank. Thanks again to everyone who took the time out to help me

[Deathundone]

I agree with everyon that has posted before me. I'm one of those people with mutlipile 85's and have tanked, healed, and dps'd. I don't dps anymore. I feel that people who just want to coast along dps because they don't want to have to work as hard to play the game. There are some good dps guys out there that will give you the benifit of a doubt and will help you. 98% of the time they will have a end game tank or healer and know what it feels like. You almost never here someone complaining about another's dps. Always you here someone complain about the tank or healer. I like tanking the most. Gives me a greater satisfaction knowing that if I don't do my job right, the dungeon will not be completed. If you are already making it to the end of the dungeon with only a couple of wipes, then don't worry about what a dps says. Only person's opinion that ever matters to me is the healer. I do listen when they say I'm to squishy or if they need me to wait for mana. My personal opinion is the dps can shove it and let me and the healer do what we do. There are always others out there running dungeons and they can go join their groups.

[Theotherone]

Suck it up cupcake you're a tank - keep telling yourself that, it helps develop a thick skin.

The Brady guides are okay, but a lot has changed in the low level dungeons since they were written - it may just be me but I think they were all hit pretty hard with the nerf bad over time. I've leveled 6 toons to 85 so far and did a lot of dungeons and I have to say anyone who gives crap in a low level dungeon is just a plan idiot. I've had people ask for a dps meter in Wailing Caverns or spam the dps meter in Slave Pens.

But we've all put up with it and still put up with it. My warrior is my newest 85 and third tank and I had a blast tanking on her in TBC and WoLK. She's at a 333 ilvl right now and I'm procrastinating bringing her in Cata heroics cause I don't want to put up with PuG idiocy; I will do it this weekend, but it won't be fun.

Keep at it's gets better. Don't worry too much about gear now. At low levels you're going to see tank/dps plate with Spirit on it; if I recall correctly one of the best early game shields came out of Wailing Caverns and was itemized with some wierd stats. Don't sweat gear right now, if it's plate and it's an upgrade take it.

Good luck. Sometimes going in a new dungeon as dps or healer is a good thing to learn the layouts.

[Toll]

You guys have definitely boosted my confidence. I got my macro set up, I gave a close look to my enchants (also noticed I didnt have any glyphs assigned :P). I think I will run a dungeon after dinner tonight. Which one should a 46-47 lvl prot pally run to pick up the most useful gear?

[Charon]

By your armory, I see you've hit 50. Grats! Since our gear, PALLY tanking experience, and level are pretty similar (Mine's 58 and sitting in Shatt til tomorrow night lol) most of your threat attacks are the aoe stuff. Hammer, flingy shield, holy wrath, and blow holy power with either the shield slam thing or word of glory if your health is kinda shaky when you reach three charges. I can't emphasize enough, PULL AT YOUR PACE! As a rookie tank, go slow. Get a real feel for things. If people bash you for going slow after you hit your macro, literally ignore them (/ignore) and NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN! This is win. Generally upgrades that I've seen are just strength and stam boosts. Strength makes threat, stam makes you die less. Easy, right? Hit helps, expertise helps, but basically all you need to worry about for the moment is maximizing strength and stam. Don't worry about your DPS numbers. DPS helps with threat (Kinda..) But you shouldn't actively seek to top the list unless you're running in retribution. As for specific dungeons, BRD drops some real pretty gear for pallies and basically anything when you hit the i key to queue up should reward you both with learning opportunities and potentially gear. Expect to see a lot of Blackrock Depths (BRD) or Temple of Atal'Hakkar (Sunken Temple/ST) until you hit 60 and finally start getting HellFire Ramparts and Blood Furnace, the first two Burning Crusade dungeons. Most of all, just keep at it. I got REALLY discouraged when I got thrust into the tank role on my DK because when you first hit 80 in the Lich King expansion, DK tanks were super squishy. YOU, however, have one advantage I didn't capitalize on: You came here early on in the learning process!

[GoOrange]

Here's how I learned to tank:

Create a DPS off-spec. Run through dungeons as DPS first to get some gear and know the layout. Once you are a bit more familiar, run as a tank. This helped me get over the performance anxiety greatly.

Honesty is always good. Be upfront and tell people you've never been somewhere or don't know where you're going. Ask for tips before boss fights. I find people (and myself) to be much more understanding if they know your new.

Lastly, be sure to check out the elitist jerks forums for your class and spec. The first post is usually an invaluable guide. Forget all the theorycrafting posts afterword, just focus on the guide that talks about gear, stat priorities, spec, rotations etc. Other good basic how-to guides can be found on this website and on others.

Good luck.

[Uranos7]

Here's how I learned to tank:

Create a DPS off-spec. Run through dungeons as DPS first to get some gear and know the layout. Once you are a bit more familiar, run as a tank. This helped me get over the performance anxiety greatly.

Honesty is always good. Be upfront and tell people you've never been somewhere or don't know where you're going. Ask for tips before boss fights. I find people (and myself) to be much more understanding if they know your new.

Lastly, be sure to check out the elitist jerks forums for your class and spec. The first post is usually an invaluable guide. Forget all the theorycrafting posts afterword, just focus on the guide that talks about gear, stat priorities, spec, rotations etc. Other good basic how-to guides can be found on this website and on others.

Good luck.

Good advice on the DPS but my DK became a tank after seeing how many bad ones there were out there and I thought "Gee I can't do any worse than them".
Most of the time when I go in as dps I come out as Tank. And here is another Macro if people get snotty with you after the first one "If you do not like my tanking you can leave or kick me, either way I will have another hopefully better group LONG b4 you!" This will Generally make them realize they have 2 options: Either go at your pace, or wait out another 40-45 minute que.

Don't let them get to you the anominity of the RDF has given people the freedom to be the A-holes they always wanted to be.

[Toll]

Thanks guys, all of this has been a huge huge help. I have a question that may seem obvious but I really am not sure what to do in this situation.

OK so lets say I am holding aggro on a group of 3-4 and one breaks off...do I chase after that one, or focus on the rest of the group?

[klausi]

1. Stay calm
2. What's that mob? A caster? A hard hitting melee? A nonelite add?
3. It's hitpoints? Is it almost dead?
4. Who it's heading to? Your healer or lookig at an overeager melee?
5. Any danger of killing somebody anytime soon or even wiping your group? -> Taunt.

Disadvantage of chasing: you might lose contact to caster that needs to be interrupted or not moving properly and getting hit in the back.

[Starbuck]

If it's heading for your healer go get it right away.
If it's heading for a dps let them have a slap in the face for not controlling their threat. Then go get it.

*$

[Gilnandra]

Forget using "nasty" macros to respond to players.

When someone says something about how I play, that my gear sucks, etc, I simply say Thank You and keep right on playing.

They always have the option to kick me or I can simply leave the group if I feel I am simply not doing the job.

No point in getting upset. This is only a game and the potential stress is tremendous.

Hope this helps

[Charon]

As a pally tank, I never had an add split off due to the AOE nature of the low level tank rotation. If you watch your party frames and see someone losing health, target them, use Righteous Defense, and get back to work. If they don't use an aggro reducer (Fade for example on a spriest) and they get aggro back before your taunt is off cooldown.. they can tank it. I noticed that tanking can be especially rough in.. I forget what instance it was, but you had 4 voidwalkers surrounding a big crystal. You have literally no tool to hit all 4 at once, and DPS wants to start beating things up. That was the only tough time I encountered.

[raiders420]

Get taunt master add on, when one of the mob goes towards a healer/caster simply left or right click on their unit frame that taunt master puts up and you will taunt it back. My left click is the hand of reckoning and my right click is righteous defense.

[sifuedition]

I disagree with tauntmaster. It taunts target of target. That is rarely the mob actually aggro'd.

Get Tidy Plates and Tidy Plates: Threat Plates.

That way you know what mob you lost and can control your taunts to getthe right one the first time.

[Ziontific]

I always feel responsible for everything, so I have this problem a lot. It persists everywhere in my life, unfortunately, and when I first purchased a Call of Duty game I was petrified of doing online multiplayer because I thought I would be terrible and everyone would hate me.
(Incidentally, my first match resulted in about a 1:2 KD ratio and someone messaging me, "U R SHIT". This did not help.)

It's something you simply have to put in perspective. You are not responsible for the entire group or raid. Getting away from playing my healer all the time and rolling Enhancement Shaman really helped me with this since, as long as I didn't zap everyone with chain lightning or something, wipes probably weren't my fault. I still raid as a healer but I don't PuG on her anymore.
Discounting the few people who feel the need to troll or take their frustrations out on strangers on the internet, most people are pretty indifferent to the other players. If you make a mistake, apologize and own up, throw in a smiley face, and the group moves on. If you're polite and don't do anything truly mind boggling, people will walk away from the dungeon group with no lasting impression of you. (That's the way I like it, anyway).

If someone gets nasty, the first instinct is to respond back in kind, but I usually don't. Stay quiet or be polite. Offering the opposite reaction is the quickest way to receive the respect of your group and make them look like a fool. If you're gearing for your class and using a viable rotation and spec, what is there to say? They're trying to measure their epeen but you don't have to help them hold the ruler.