I have an undead warrior who's spent the last three months or so running between the mailbox and the auction house... I wanted to play with some lower lever friends, though, and since she was the closest in level I decided to just level her up a bit.
Anyway, what I really want to do with her is tank--I'm patient enough that even though leveling Protection is supposed to take longer, I won't mind that. And since with my friends we already have the potential for healing and dps (though the druid can always go bearform to tank, I suppose), it made sense; it's always easier to get things done with a more balanced group...
I figured that since I've been healing a lot with my shaman, and thus -watching- tanks at work, I could figure it out pretty easily. I've been having a lot of trouble, though, and could use some advice.
Today I went through Ragefire Chasm about 6-7 times because I figured it would be safer to practice there than in Wailing Caverns (which I'm just barely at the right level for) and it was interesting to say the least. I found that I had no trouble taking care of one or two mobs, but any more than that was really tricky, and I could not handle more than four at once. Although I really don't think we should have been taking on 5-7 at once anyway...I'm thinking I should get a bow so I can pull myself instead of relying on other party members. I think I did all right--one group wanted to go back through, but they'd only all do it if I came too--but that might just be a shortage of people willing to tank...
Anyway, some more specific questions:
1. Am I generally going to be expected to do the marking? I feel really uncomfortable doing it when I don't know the instance well, but it seems like that's considered one of "my" responsibilities in the tank role.
2. If I have multiple mobs on me and see another heading back towards the main group, do I follow it and try to get it on me, or do I trust the dps to handle it? I don't know that running towards everyone with several mobs following is a good thing, but maybe they'd stay on me anyway?
3. What stances should I use, and when? I only have battle and defensive so far, and found that I was having a lot of trouble keeping enough rage up so that I could use abilities. I mostly ended up staying in Battle Stance so I could charge, and just switching to Defensive for the bosses or if the fight was a bit longer and I was having trouble.
4. At a low level (17 right now) which abilities are best for generating threat, and which abilities should I be using most? What I've been doing so far is using Bloodrage, charging the skull, using Thunder Clap for the group around it, and then Sundering first the skull and then anything I can get to. I tend to use Mocking Blow and Taunt a fair bit too, when I see mobs getting away from me.
5. Should I be doing a lot of damage if I'm tanking? Most of the groups I was in had someone with a damage meter, and it kind of worries me that I've been doing a lot... usually second highest, around 20-25% of the damage dealt. I was under the impression that the tank isn't usually going to be dealing out a lot of damage...correct me on this if I'm wrong?
6. I've been approaching the idea of tanking as kind of similar to healing, in the sense that it's mainly to keep the rest of the group alive long enough to kill whatever it is we're fighting. If anyone is going to die, it had better be me... I do the best I can to keep the mobs off everyone else, and trust the healer to keep me alive as long as possible, with no hard feelings if I don't make it. Is this right, or would I be better off just rolling another healer if I want to do something that would be useful to a group?
Sorry that it's kind of long, but I really want to be the best at this that I can be. Any help is appreciated!
Here's a link to my armory page if you want to see the gear I'm working with...I think it's pretty decent for right now? http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonmaw&n=Isyris
Edited, Mar 18th 2008 7:05am by isyris