Beginner's Guide to Tanking

There have always been a lot of newer tanks coming to this forum looking for basic information on the tanking world, and I thought it would save everyone involved a lot of time to compile a list of common questions. This should be an ongoing thread as WoW is ever changing, and I hope to see a lot of community input. Thanks in advance for everyone's help! If there is something not included feel free to ask :)

Section 1: Frequently Asked Questions
Section 2: Rotation/Strategy
Section 3: Specs
Section 4: Consumables
Section 5: Glyphs
Section 6: Gems
Section 7: Resources/References
________________________________________________________________________________________

                                        Section 1- FAQ

1): How do I become immune to Critical Strikes?(Why is 540 Defense so Important?): Paladins, Warriors, and Death Knights must bring their Defensive Skill to 540 (689 Defense Rating) to be immune to Crits. Druids with 3/3 Survival of the Fittest (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=33856) are immune to Crits regardless of gear. There are certain mobs in various areas and instances that can either reduce your Defense Rating, Amanitar in Heroic Old Kingdom, or increase their own Critical Chance, Unbound Firestorms in Halls Of Lightning, causing you to be Crit. (These are just two examples, several exist and will continue to be added) For a guide to getting the gear you’ll need to hit 540, please checkout Ciderhelm’s guide stickied in this Forum. Please note these values are for Raid (LvL 83 Boss) content. Heroic Bosses are LvL 82 and in turn only require 535 Defense.

2): What’s the difference between Hit and Expertise, and how do they help?: Hit affects your chance to Miss your target. The base Miss chance against a mob of equal level is 5%, and 8% with a Raid Boss (Level 83). Expertise affects your chance to be Dodged or Parried. The Dodge and Parry chances for boss-mobs is currently disputed, but combat parses tend to point at around 6.5% Dodge and as high as 12-15% Parry. Assuming 6.5% Dodge and 15% Parry, a player would need 26 Expertise to negate a boss' Dodge chance, and 60 Expertise to prevent Parries. Different Races gain expertise with different weapons, and certain Talents can increase your expertise depending on your Spec. It is generally accepted that reaching the Dodge “Soft Cap” is the best goal, working towards avoiding Parries as your gear allows. Once reaching the Dodge "Soft Cap", Paladins will get more value from Hit than Expertise.

3): What are Diminishing Returns (DR) on my Avoidance and Mitigation?: Patch 3.0 added a DR to tanking . The %’s shown on your Character Sheet are the actual numbers used in combat, with the DR applied after your Talents are factored in. The conversion rates require a bit of math and must be calculated each time something is changed, making it difficult to get an accurate % a piece would actually provide. Examples, graphs, and more discussion can be found at http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f63/40003-diminishing-returns-avoidance.html. The goal is to eliminate tanks that in higher end content were rarely hit, and make the content as difficult as Blizzard intended it to.

4):What is the Defense Cap?: There is no effective "Hard Cap" on Defense, although the stats it provides are affected harder by DR the higher you stack it. Refer to question #1 for Critical Strike information.

5): Am I ready for Naxx?: A vague and arguable question, getting ready for Naxx can be done through Heroics and Craftable gear in a short time. Here are some baseline values for each class unbuffed:

   Druids – 25k Armor and 25k Health, 35-40% Avoidance

             Death Knights – 540 Defense, 28K Health (in Frost Presence)

             Paladins – 540 Defense, 23k Health

             Warriors – 540 Defense, 25k Health

These are VERY vague ideas of where your gear needs to be before you enter Naxx and will also depend on the gear of your healers. This is generalized in the sense that once these numbers are reached, your Parry, Dodge, and Block will be at sufficient levels.

6): How do I become uncrushable?: Crushing blows were effective removed from raiding by making them available to mobs 4+ levels above you. Raid Bosses are level 83, and therefor cannot crush a level 80. Tanking Heroics if you're under the level recommended and you'll be crushed. Paladin's can still use the same math to become "Unhittable" in the sense that they will mitigate or avoid all melee attacks made against them. Combine your Dodge, Parry, Block, and 11.6% Miss (6% base, 5.6% from Defense). If these total over 102.4% you are now "unhittable".

                                        Section 2- Rotation/Strategy

                Death Knights(Frost)

Single Rotation: IT, PS, BS, BS, OB, OB When Excess Runic Power is available Use Frost Strike and Runic Strike as Runic Power Dump

Rotation Priorities =
1) Use Defensive Abilities when Required
2) Use Horn of Winter when Applicable
3) Keep Both Diseases on target
4) Keep both Blood Runes as Death Runes
5) Keep Runic Power from hitting 100 using Frost Strike and Runic Strike
6) Use Obliterate on Cooldown

AOE Rotation: DnD,IT,PS,PEST,HB,BB,FS,OB,HB,PEST When Excess Runic Power is available Use Frost Strike and Runic Strike as Runic Power Dumps

You can only use DnD every 2nd Rotation

DnD - Death and Decay
IT - Icy Touch
PS - Plague Strike
BB - Bloodboil
RS - Runic Strike
BS - Blood Strike
OB - Obliterate
HB - Howling Blast

                Druids

Best Practices
There are basically three types of fights you'll need to worry about - Those that generate lots of rage, those that make you struggle for rage and those where you will drift from a full rage bar to empty depending on the hits you take etc.

High Rage Fights
Generally this is when you are the MT and the boss does a large amount of damage or when you are tanking multiple mobs at the same time. It is your goal to use every bit of rage you have - you never want that rage bar at 100% because that is rage you should have been using to generate more threat.

Ability Order:
Open with Mangle, then Lacerate, then spam Swipe and Maul until Mangle is ready.
Rinse, repeat. Just make sure to keep Lacerate up.

Low Rage Fights
Generally this is when you are the OT or the boss does medium to low damage directly to you. It is your goal to maintain the highest amount of threat you can with what little rage you have.

Ability Order:
Open with FFF, then Mangle, then Lacerate then, rage permitting, spam Swipe. Be sure to stop spamming Swipe early to prevent waiting for rage when Mangle becomes ready. After you Mangle you sould be able to re-apply FFF then Lacerate then Swipe once or twice before Mangle.
Continue in this rotation.

Note: On some fights you might not be able to Maul at all if Rage generation is very slow. That's ok, just make sure you maintain Mangle whenever you can, use FFF whenever it is up, Lacerate to keep the bleed effect up and Swipe the rest of the time.

High / Low Fights
On many fights you'll find your rage sometimes spikes to full then drifts down to near empty. For these fights, you want to use your rage in the smartest way possibly by maximizing threat as your rage goes up and down. Really that just means switching between the high and low rage fight orders listed above as your rage goes up and down.

Ability Order:
As always, Mangle whenever it is up. When your rage is over 40% to 50%, spam Maul and Swipe. When it dips below 40% to 50%, stop Mauling and use FFF until it goes back up. And always keep the Lacerate bleed up.

Note: You should always keep an eye on the cooldown of Mangle and, about 1 to 2 seconds before it is ready to cast, stop using Swipe, Lacerate and FFF and wait for Mangle to be ready. If you don't stop and just spam buttons, you'll very likely push Mangle back a few seconds or more due to global cooldowns. This definatly does effect your threat generation especially over long fights.

                Paladins

The rotations for Paladins vary greatly depending on situations, gear, and the type of mob. The most widely used rotation, referred to as "96969", is discussed in depth here.
http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewtopic.php?t=18982

                                        Section 2- Rotations/Strategy (Continued)

                Warriors

Single-target Tanking:

To start with, you’ll use Shield Slam whenever it’s up. As soon as SaB procs, you use SS. You’ll also want to note that Shield Block, instead of a panic button, is much more important as a way of increasing your SS hits. Because of that you’ll be using SB every time it’s off cd, followed by as many SS’s as you can fit into the SB’s duration. Secondly, you’ll use Revenge every time it’s off cd, except when you can do SS instead. Followed by this you’ll want to make sure you put 5 Devastates on the target for the dps. As soon as the Devastates are on you switch to Conc Blow, Shockwaves, and Heroic Throws in between the SS and Rev cd’s, only doing a Devastate to keep the debuff on the mob or when all else is on cd. Devastate is useful in the sense that they proc SaB, but Rev does the same thing for a lower cost. Obviously you'll be using Heroic Strike as your rage dump whenever you can.

The biggest change to the rotation, therefore, is the changing role of Devastate to supporting ability instead of main ability, and the SaB proc providing a reactive part to your tanking.

As far as pulls go, you’ll want to follow a certain pattern whenever possible. You use Heroic Throw on the mob you want to tank, you back off a bit while it runs towards you and when it is on the spot you want to tank it, you charge in. You pop Shield Block while you’re still on your way to the mob and Shield Slam as soon as you reach him for a large amount of instant threat. Now you start your normal rotation. If all this costs more rage then you have, pop Bloodrage first. If you have Gag Order, this pulls caster mobs as well as melee mobs.

AoE Tanking:

For AoE tanking you’ll use the same rotation as single-target tanking to an extent, but you’ll use Thunder Clap and Shockwave whenever they come off cd before you use SS and Rev. You’ll still tab-target to get to each mob for high threat on each, but TC, Shockwave and not to forget Damage Shield should make sure all the mobs stick to you over all but the highest dps. In between mobs you could use Cleaves, but your rage is better used on single-target abilities in between your AoE abilities followed by target switching.

Various Abilities:

While your AoE tanking you might want to remember Retaliation in the Arms stance as well. It’s not on a shared cd with Shield Wall anymore (nor is Recklessness) and will provide you with 20 quick attacks against all the mobs fighting you. A nice bit of aggro for a few seconds effort.

In both rotations you’ll want to remember Recklessness as well for some fast aggro on a single mob, especially combined with Impale. You could pop it just before a pull to give yourself a nice lead before dps starts. On the same note remember that the Orc’s racial Blood Fury no longer has a healing penalty and provides a decent tps boost for 15 secs.

Lastly, Berserker Rage is now usable in all stances and provides not just the immunity to fear, sap and incapacitate effects, but also extra rage from being hit for 10 seconds. Extra rage for no cost? Something to pop whenever you don’t have enough rage for any of your abilities. Alternatively, and a tactic I’ve been using more and more frequently, you can pop Berserker Rage right before you Charge into a mob. A typical pull will be Bloodrage – Heroic Throw – back away from the mob – Berserker Rage – Charge. This pull-style will give you a very large amount of instant rage for that instant threat, and keep the rage coming in for those 8-9 Berserker Rage seconds, with no drawbacks.

                                        Section 3- Specs

Obviously each class is going to have several specs that work for different people, the following are some of the most popular/widely used.

Death Knights

48/14/9 Blood Tanking Build
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jcxMqIhIsbRzuhZhxbzhZbg

10/54/7 Frost Tanking build.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jcxMZGxxzhedMhoVssx0g


Druids

You will notice that 1 point is still unspent. That can go in either Feral Instinct, Primal Instincts, or Brutal Impact. This is the build for those that plan on using there duel spec for 2 different bear specs, say a 5/10 man spec as their off and then this for 25 mans.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxMGsfrzceoc0uAo0Eczb


Again 1 unspent point most likely will be put into Imp LOTP. I will be using my offpsec for pure DPS simply because of the glyph swap with it, you can do it on the fly in 25 mans for single tank fights, and since i can probably tank a 10 man with this spec even without IW.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGGscrdceoc0zAo0Eczb

Above spec but without NSS/MS chain. Hybrid 25 man build, less effective than dual specing cat because of glyphs but should not hinder the raid. Again, 1 unspent point for either PI or Imp LOTP.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGGsfrdceoc0uAo0E0z

Paladin

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZ0xVA0uZxo

This is the point where choices have to be made. You need 3 points to move down the tree to get the lower half:

Stoicism - PvP talent. Any stun that matters in PvE isn't affected by the talent (think Maxxena).
Divine Guardian - Useless when tanking. Situational. 2 points only
Guardian's Favor - Spare "taunt" on quicker cooldown. Longer HoFs. 2 points only.
Kings/Imp. Kings - If you plan on having this full time, you can put 3 points here for now.
Imp. HoJ - Quicker spell interrupts on fights where you can interrupt the boss. Decent choice.
Reckoning 3/5 - Minor threat increase from white damage

There's no standard build, per se, because the choice you make to get past mid-level in protection depends on what role the raid needs. That leaves 9 points to spend at will:

- If you're the only paladin in the raid, you should max out Kings and Heart of the Crusader. Then stick the spare point in SotP:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=szZaxVAcuMteIRGoxs

- If there's a ret paladin along, max out your threat in SotP and pick up Imp. BoM so a warrior doesn't have to waste rage on the AP shout. The last two points can be selfishly placed where ever (shorter HoP - Guardian's Favor, some minimal mana cost reduction - 2/5 Benediction, Raid-wide shield wall when offtanking - Divine Guardian)

As for Kings, the people who are best fitted to bring it are as follows (in order):
- Ret paladin: gives up nothing in PvE spec to take it
- Prot paladin: gives up 3% seal/judgement dps increase
- Holy paladin: gives up 3% crit

Warrior

The Deep Wounds build is arguably the most popular spec right now. The following leaves 2 points open to place where you please, most go for Imp Spell Reflect, Revenge, or Cruelty.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LAM00fZhZmItMx0zidIzsGo

There is a detailed layout and explanation of the pros and cons of this build here
http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f14/43648-guide-15-5-51-a.html

                                        Section 4- Consumables

                          Flasks/Elixirs

Indestructible Potion: Increases armor by 3500 for 2 min. (1 Min Cooldown) Great armor boost, though you lose the chance to pop a Health pot as they share the same cooldown.

Guru's Elixir: Increases all Stats by 20 for 1.00 hour. Battle Elixir.

Elixir of Mighty Strength: Increases your Strength by 50 for 1.00 hour. Battle Elixir.

Elixir of Accuracy: Increases your Hit Rating by 45 (2.85% @ L70) for 1.00 hour. Battle Elixir.

Elixir of Mighty Fortitude: Increases maximum health by 350 and restores 20 health every 5 seconds for 1.00 hour. Guardian Elixir.

Elixir of Protection: Increases armor by 800 for 1.00 hour. Guardian Elixir.

Elixir of Mighty Defense: Increases your Defense Rating by 45 (19.02 @ L70) for 1.00 hour. Guardian Elixir.

Elixir of Expertise: Increases your Expertise Rating by 45 (11.41 @ L70) of 1.00 hour. Battle Elixir.

Flask of Stoneblood: Increases the player's maximum health by 650 for 2.00 hrs. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.

Flask of Fortification: Increases maximum health by 500 and defense rating by 10 (5.45 @ L65) for 2.00 hrs. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death. It's a carry over from BC but a little more effective in some situations than the new flasks.

                          Food

Blackened Dragonfin: Restores 15000 health and 12960 mana over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 Agility and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.

Dragonfin Filet: Restores 15000 health and 12960 mana over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 Strength and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.

Rhinolicious Wyrmsteak: Restores 15000 health over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 Expertise Rating and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.

Snapper Extreme: Restores 15000 health and 12960 mana over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 Hit Rating and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.

Spiced Wyrm Burger: Restores 15000 health over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 Critical Strike Rating and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.

Spicy Blue Nettlefish: Restores 15000 health and 12960 mana over 30 sec. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 Critical Strike Rating and 40 Stamina for 1.00 hour.

                                        Section 5- Glyphs

Coming Soon!

                                        Section 6- Gems

Coming Soon!

                                        Section 7- Credits and Reference

www.TankSpot.com
www.TankHard.com
www.TenTonHammer.com
http://TheBigBearButt.com/
http://ElitistJerks.com/
www.WowHead.com
http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/


A special thanks to all the players that have helped contribute to this thread and continue to do so!
/salute

****A good majority of this information is pulled from guides and information on these sites, I will not take credit for the research and hard work of their contributors I've simply compiled them for our use here.****

For more in depth, detailed questions about each class try these links:
Warriors - http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/40491-wotlk-prot-warrior-guide.html

Paladins - http://www.failsafedesign.com/maintankadin/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=75b6993ad38ee2b720fff4b8d627e9d3

Druids - http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/40502-wotlk-feral-druid-guide.html

Death Knights - http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f14/40694-death-knight-aoe-spec-mt-spec-rotations.html

report for sticky ~_~ :D go cleeve. baddie

STICKY PL0X!1!1!!1!

Sticky Please.

There are a few things I'd like to see in this thread.

Touched by the light is a mandatory paladin tanking talent. Please do not include any builds that do not have this talent maxed.

Divine guardian and improved hammer of justice are pretty bad for paladin tanks, and threat talents (conviction if possible or seals of the pure) would be superior. Benediction is also downright useless.

Guru's elixir should be noted in the elixir section, as guru+protection is the best elixir setup for effective health.

"Blessing of Kings - Best offered by you, the Protection Paladin in the majority of circumstances. "
This quote is just plain wrong. In the majority of circumstances the protection paladin should give the entire raid sanctuary and a ret paladin should give the entire raid kings.

Now that that's over with, thanks!

---

Q u o t e:
There are a few things I'd like to see in this thread.

Touched by the light is a mandatory paladin tanking talent. Please do not include any builds that do not have this talent maxed.

Divine guardian and improved hammer of justice are pretty bad for paladin tanks, and threat talents (conviction if possible or seals of the pure) would be superior. Benediction is also downright useless.

Guru's elixir should be noted in the elixir section, as guru+protection is the best elixir setup for effective health.

"Blessing of Kings - Best offered by you, the Protection Paladin in the majority of circumstances. "
This quote is just plain wrong. In the majority of circumstances the protection paladin should give the entire raid sanctuary and a ret paladin should give the entire raid kings.

Now that that's over with, thanks!

---

This was the kind of input I was looking for out of palys :) I couldn't find any builds everyone agreed on lol, Gimme a bit to edit. Any thoughts on a rotation?