Tanking Warrior Guide

For a Warrior Talent Guide for 1 - 70 click here.

Warrior Tank Guide by Cardaxar - Dunemaul Server

Originally posted on the Official WoW Guide Forums on 8-24-2006
This is older but still applicable to Warriors as a class guide.

So someone asked if anyone with topics posted pre-forum wipe could post them, so...
(I'm not sure who wrote this, just know im not taking credit for writing it. =D)

Warrior Tank Guide

The first thing we must talk about is the multiple functions of a tank, and this guide will review only the ones of the Warrior class, considering that I have little experience with the Paladin class, and even less with the Feral or Druid class.

A tank is what a player becomes when he finds himself holding threat (or aggro) of a certain Mob or Monster, and taking it's damage, preventing

the other players of the party or raid from taking direct damage. That would be my definition anyway, and it can often change depending of the fight. There are two "known" jobs in which a tank can perform:

Main Tanking:
Basically, the "Tank" job, you will be directly responsible for the security of your group, through mitigation, positioning, and making sure to hold enough threat so that other players in your raid can do as much damage as they can without getting aggro. Truth must be said, sometimes this position is quite wanted by some people in order to gain a kind of "fame" or "respect". If you intend to do this job, leave that aside, and concentrate on doing your job the best that you can for your group.

The MT's job can be quite stressful as well, and is probably one of the jobs that will you make hate this game if you weren't "born" for it. You must be active and vigilant throughout the whole instance, if it's a raid it can take several hours, and you cannot go away for a minute without warning, because people will die due to that. A rogue can go away a moment without telling anyone and most of the time no one will find out, you, on the contrary, go away a moment and everyone will know you were not on the ball. Yes, the job sounds scary, but you decided to take the responsibility.

Off Tanking:
Okay, not as bad as the Main tank, but you still have quite some responsibility, especially if the MT decides to stop living and wants to play with the worms on the floor. I often find myself with OTs that are not doing what I believe is a secondary part of tanking, but rather doing DPS. This is a misconception of the job, although it is true at the same time. An Off Tank on the same target as the MT is trying to build threat on it, so that in the case that the MT dies, he will be holding threat.

But that's not it! A Main Tank is in defensive and can hardly move away from it. It is the OT's job to Thunder Clap the target (an excellent skill many times not used), since it must be done in Battle Stance, or in some rare cases where the Mob is positioned in such a way that it's too far away from the Main Tank, yet the Main Tank is hitting him, and he can't use Demoralizing Shout, then you'll have to provide that as well. If you have been entitled with this position, then remember you are the Main Tank's mate, and he relies on you for certain things he can't do. Help him in the best of your abilities, his job is hard enough as it is.

2b. Onto Tanking..

# a) Mitigating Damage:

Maintaining the target on you, creating threat or aggro on that target so it will stay hitting you directly, and not others in your party will obviously incur in you taking that damage. Why you and not someone else? First of all, if you have been appointed or decided to become a tank, you will be geared in such a way (gear is reviewed in another section, check summary) that you will be taking less damage per hit than other possible options in your party or raid. This will not always be true, since an assigned tank could die and you could find yourself becoming the Main Tank due to your threat, over a better geared tank, who could not create such a high amount of threat in time, whose taunt was resisted, who just got a blue screen, or was afk (away from the keyboard) with auto-attack on.

Your first and most important job is done even before engaging, and that is knowing how the encounter works. Whether you read a guide about it before-hand, or you are in a learning process, you must take into account what the mob that you are about to face is able to do. Does it have a cone breath attack 90º in front of his face? Does it have a tail with which it can kick other people? Does it spit venom clouds on the ground in a controlled way? Etc.

All these are factors that you must be aware of, and take them into account while tanking. After making sure the target is on you ( creating enough threat or aggro to have it on you), this will be your biggest worry, and must act accordingly and POSITION the mob in such a way that none of these factors will be a problem for the raid, if they are avoidable at all.

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