Tanking QuestionFollow

I've been looking at forums and they all say that prot is the way to go, and i'm game for it
The only thing is, how do you tank 3-4 mobs in a instance? I've never been a tank so i have no clue on what to do, Can someone help me by telling me what i should do as by tanking and how to put aggro on everyone?

What I like to do is:
Shoot my target
Charge my target when it gets in range and devastate
Shockwave as soon as the other mobs get in range
Follow that with a Thunder Clap
Then start distributing the devastates.
I like to use the glyph that puts a sunder armor debuff on a different mob when I sunder armor or devastate on my target. I rarely lose aggro when I do this.

Demo shout is terrible threat generation. If you need the mitigation, go for broke, but for threat gains? Waste of rage. I personally never touch the button in PvE. It's worthless in 5 mans, and I have DPS warriors to apply it in raids.

It blows at every level. In lower level, you tab sunder, revenge, shield slam. Demo is a single (low) threat number, and then it's also divided between every mob it hits. It's literally not enough threat to hold a mob onto you through an auto-attack. Add into that the fact that it's only applicable once (meaning after your initial demo. shout it provides no threat), and it quickly becomes clear what a waste of rage it is.

Never said it didn't, my description of it in my original post was 'terrible'.

Edit: I'd give exact numbers, but honestly...I'm lazy. I know in BC it was 120 threat divided amongst the mobs in the pull, and I wouldn't imagine it's changed too much.

Edited, Dec 23rd 2008 10:57pm by FletusSanguine

Cleave is a good threat 2 target threat builder, we have that too. It is far superior to demo shout.

Demo shout gives around 50 threat spread out over every mob. So if you have 4 mobs, that's 25 threat each.

Threat from cleave is damage + (value dependent on level) threat on 2 targets, not spread out.



It IS a waste of rage. The only time we use it is on boss fights, and then if it's a raid, you have a DPS warrior apply it. In heroics, you shouldn't need to apply Demo shout to any mob.

It is a rage waste 2ndly because you take less damage from the mobs, and you get rage from getting hit (the harder the better baby).

The best AE threat is simply Tclap every cooldown. Shockwave if you have it, on every cooldown.

If you want to do better AE threat, use cleave and get glyph of sunder...

First mark a skull. Tell people to hit this mob first. Then charge at that mob. Thunderclap. Now what happens next is up to you. You can Shockwave, which will stun the mobs and limit your initial threat gen. Or you can Shield Block which will create more rage and return damage to the mobs, creating more threat, but will not create as much snap threat as Shockwave. What I like to do is Shockwave, since the stun is relatively short, and immediately Shield Block.

Regardless of what you choose, your next move is to Shield Slam the skull, then tab to another mob and Devastate / Revenge it. If Sword and board procs, may as well Shield Slam it again, if not, oh well, tab to the next target and continue. Your hierarchy of abilities should be Shield Slam -> Revenge -> Devastate. That is, use Shield Slam if it's available. If not, use Revenge if it's available. If not, use Devastate.

The whole time you are doing this, spam Cleave. Use Thunderclap again as soon as you can. Use Shockwave again as soon as you can.

Gear also plays a part. The stats to look for on AOE tanking are Strength, Shield Block Rating, and Shield Block Value. Reasons: Strength will provide more SBV (Shield Block Value) as well as attack power (boosts your thunder clap, autoattacks, cleaves, shockwaves, and so on); Shield Block Rating will help you block more attacks for when Shield Block is down; and SBV will of course cause more return damage on Damage Shield.

You can also put on a damage spike for your shield to return even more damage. If there's a druid in the party, have them put thorns on you.

As a last comment, in TBC warriors did not particularly want Shield Block Rating due to the fact that Shield Block could be up nearly 100% of the time, except on very fast hitting bosses. Now that this is not the case, Shield Block Rating is a valuable stat for warriors to pick up.