Heroics or Kara?Follow

Don't tank Kara crushable, not a good idea. Unless you are an off tank or something, but still, without the avoidance you'll be more of a liability. No mob can crush in Heroics so it would be wise to start out in some of the easier Heroics and get gear. You CAN reach uncrushability though without Heroic gear if you work at it.

Yes, Heroics can be brutal on tanks. One reason is because you've only got the one healer to look after you, as opposed to a raid where you should have multiple. But again, so far from uncrush, I would suggest trying Heroics first.

I was like you: I didn't do a single Heroic until after I started Kara, cause I was afraid of them. Knowing then what I know now though I would have done some Heroics sooner.

Heroic Mechanar is pretty easy, even with PuG's.

imo Slave Pens is the easiest Heroic. Outside of the second boss in Mech, that one is a cake walk as well. And yes, Ramps is pretty easy to do, again, barring the second boss (a lot of people have trouble keeping spread out for him ...).

Ones you might want to wait to do: Mana Tombs, Magister's Terrace, and Arcatraz. Those are probably the most difficult, all things considered.

You don't need ANY heroic gear to reach uncrushable (with 12k hp to boot), and for a Paladin tank there's extremely few pieces that actually drop off of heroic bosses (outside of Heroic MrT of course) that are better than BLUE quality gear you can get in regular instances. The real benefit of heroics for a pally tank is badges, because there's a TON of great badge gear. Chest, legs, librams and rings especially -- but there's decent belts and what-not as well.

Still on the first page:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=2;mid=12099362305084089;num=22;page=1

Edited, May 10th 2008 12:47pm by Losie

You said that you are 30% away from the 102.4 minimum? Your armory came up with an error ( not sure why). But are you figuring in Holy Shield in that %?

Just wondering when I first started I was doing that. If you look threw the older listings there is a great macro for pallies to figure avoidance.

I have tanked Underbog, Slave Pens, Ramparts, tried mech didn't make it. But have tanked Attunman, moroes, opera and Curator.

For some reason have lots of problems on Maiden, not sure why.

Good luck to you :)

Ive been countint holy sheild, just got a new chest and boots so Im at 82% now and 11.7 health.

still need to find some boots and maybe a new sheild. Not sure what else to change.

armory hasnt updated yet but now have jade-skull breast plate and sha'tari vindacators waistguard

Edited, May 10th 2008 6:11pm by Nipherdil

Edited, May 10th 2008 6:14pm by Nipherdil

ya just tried to get em, guy died though. will make another run later :(

also about to get some of my gear enchanted so that will help a little.

/w gear enchants Im still only at 84% and barley over 12k hp :(

Edited, May 10th 2008 9:40pm by Nipherdil

Heroic Arcatraz isn't THAT hard.

The infernals are the only thing you need to really worry about.

Infernals were cake imo, it was the rest of the instance that my groups had trouble with. Particularly bad are the 3 "sub bosses" before the final boss. That final boss himself is a piece of cake, but the 3 just before him wipe my groups time after time.

I didn't find Crypts to be that hard either, unless I had a Shaman or Paladin healer. That eye boss is a pain in the *** for classes that actually have cast times on their spells. The reason I never go anymore is because it's a waste for only 2 Badges.

Shadow Labyrinth: I didn't include that cause the only part I ever really saw as a challenge was the trash before The Inciter (second boss). God, I hate those shadow priests. And Shattered Halls: he's a Paladin :P Just starting out he could use a couple CC, but even at that taking 4 mobs shouldn't be an issue. SH is a cake walk with a good Paladin at the helm.

EDIT: I did forget to include Old Hillsbrad though, but I heard that they nerfed the hell out of it recently. Is that true? It's the only Heroic I never completed, cause everyone was always too scared to run it, but if they nerfed it, maybe I can finally get a group to finish it.

Edited, May 10th 2008 11:47pm by Maulgak

Yea, I expect that from Durn. What people were always afraid of were those wandering human/dog combos that would call 1 or 2 other packs of mobs close to them and literally swarm you to death. I'd fully expect to still have the "gauntlet" style pulls after releasing Thrall and the groups of 4 mobs to take on, but those wandering packs were god-awful.

Before or after Curator?

Before him there are 2 arcane guardians that do a AoE debuff on a target, so that guy has to get away from everyone else.

They really challenge your HP & Dodge if you want to tank them together. I'd suggest at least 13k base HP to take them together. Or just have the offtank take one.

The mana worms after them suck your MP.. so get a good 2 consecrations down on them. It works better if you have a hunter misdirect pull them from the room to you, while you wait out on the staircase outside so there's no line of sight issues. Then you have full MP when they reach you. Otherwise just get um yourself and be ready on your pot timer if you need it. The big void-walker like guys with them have an aggro wipe when they teleport. You won't hold on to them. Have all your DPS burn the big guys down first (their HP is actually their mana bar) unless they are AoEing the worms. You will likely lose healers to them if you aren't quick.

The arcane guardians after Curator are easier. They're pansies. The mana worms in the library after him are immune to magical damage, including holy. This is why you can't hold them. They are however extremely weak and easy for a group to burn down, even with all casters someone can physical damage them down before they have a chance to do serious damage to anyone.

A question about heroics, paladin related. Is it wise for the tank(in most cases a paladin) to make full use of the available CC in the group? I realise if well geared, overgeared or guild run it's doable. But pugging and in one case the tank wearing PVP gear?

If you can, see if guildies will help you run heroic Mana Tombs to the first boss. Only a few mobs from the entrance. He drops Boots of the Colossus.

Interesting thing about this fight is that you can tank it in cloth. Just go to the AH, and load up on shadow resistance stuff. Or find a warlock or someone who has high Shadow Res (250+), and they can tank.

EDIT - Oh, and Mech is only hard the first few times. Once you get strats down, it's really easy. Kind of like SLab (regular).

Edited, May 12th 2008 9:52am by YJMark