Armstrong's World of WarCraft Warrior Tanking FAQ

Disclaimer: This document was written ... I can't even remember when really, probably in early 2006. As of writing this note on 8/06/07, many aspects of it are now outdated, and I would answer a few of the questions differently. However it is still largely valid for tanks who are new to the game, particularly warriors who aren't specced Protection and want to do a decent job at tanking instances as they are leveling up to 60 and 70. For more information on WoW tanking, including other beginner and advanced guides and FAQs, visit TankSpot.

This FAQ attempts to cover the bread and butter of tanking, or in other words, everything I could come up with that any Warrior serious about tanking should know. Hopefully it will prove useful to a few people.

If you have any questions or suggestions on how to make this guide better, feel free to send me a PM on the <Elysium> forums.

Q. What's so good about the Protection tree? A lot of Warriors say that you don't have to go Protection to be able to tank. Why would I want to spec Protection?

A. You don't need to spec Protection to be a good tank, just like you don't need to spec Arms or Fury to deal good damage. Using the right gear and knowing how to use your abilities are important factors for both roles. But just like the Arms and Fury trees will give you an edge for dealing damage, the Protection tree will give you an edge for tanking. Almost every Protection talent will help you with either building more aggro, staying alive longer or protecting your party members. Where you spend your talent points is all about what role you want your warrior to have an edge in. In that respect, the Protection tree does as good a job as the other two, and is well worth spending points into if you want to be the best tank you can be.

Q. I'm leveling up a Warrior and I want to be able to PvP and kill stuff fast. I'm going to go Arms/Fury and respec Protection at 60 so I can be MT on my guild raids and get phat lewtz.

A. Ok, that's fine, but be aware that speccing Protection in and of itself will not make you a good tank overnight (nor will reading this FAQ). Make sure to pull out your 1H & shield, switch to Defensive stance and actually tank for a group at every possible occasion before you reach 60. In WoW, holding aggro and staying alive becomes more and more difficult as you reach the higher levels, and waiting until you are 60 to learn how to tank is just not a good idea.

Q. What does the Defense stat do exactly?

A. One Defense point raises your chance to Block, Dodge and Parry by 0.04% each. One Defense point also increases the chances that your opponent will Miss you decreases the chances that your opponent will land a Critical hit on you by 0.04% each.

Avoiding damage is an important part of being a tank, and high Defense goes hand in hand with high armor to reduce the overall damage you take over the course of a fight. Keep in mind that high Stamina is just as important to staying alive as avoidance and mitigation, and stacking up on Defense at the expense of Stamina is not necessarily a good idea. No matter how good your damage avoidance ability, you will still take critical hits once in a while, and a big health pool will act as a "buffer" to give your healers time to get your health back up before the next big hit.

For more in-depth information about the Defense skill checkout this very nice write-up by Satrina of the defunct guild Evil Empire.

Q. Why do people say I need to use a 1H weapon and a shield for tanking?

A. Two reasons:

Staying alive and holding aggro over healers. Using a shield gives you an extra 25-30% armor AND every attack against you has a chance of being partially or fully Blocked. Armor reduces the physical damage you take (about 90% of the damage dealt by mobs throughout the game is physical damage).

The less damage you take, a) the less likely you are to die, and b) the less healing you need, which means 1) your healer can keep you alive longer, and 2) your healer builds up less aggro because they are healing less.
Revenge! Equipping a shield allows the use of the Shield Block ability, which is the best way to open up the Revenge ability. Revenge is the best threat generating ability, but because it can only be used after you block, dodge or parry, you will rarely get to use it without the use of Shield Block.

Q. But I'm Arms/Fury specced and I deal a lot more damage with a two-hander or by dual-wielding. I can tank just fine by out-damaging everyone in the group. Leave me alone!

A. (See answer 1 above) In order to deal that much damage, you have to be in Battle or Berzerker stance, which means you're taking either 10% or 20% more damage than you would in Defensive stance, not to mention the extra damage mitigation you are not getting from the use of a shield. Also, threat generation in Battle and Berzerker stance is about half of the threat generated in Defensive stance, everything else being equal. Even if you can hold aggro over your healer through damage alone, you're much more difficult to keep alive, and your healer will run out of mana much sooner. A dead tank often means a wipe.

Also, you may be able to out-damage other party members because you have a level or gear advantage over them, but sooner or later other classes will out-damage you by a significant margin, and when you lose aggro in Battle stance holding a two-hander you don't have access to Taunt or Revenge and won't be able to pull the mobs back to you as easily.

Q. What's the best way to pull a mob's attention back to me when another player has "pulled aggro"?

A. When you lose aggro on a mob, use Taunt to help trigger your best hate-generating ability: Revenge. Revenge requires you to Dodge/Block/Parry an attack prior to its use, and therefore is not useable if no mob is attacking you. The way to do this is Shield Block -> Taunt -> Revenge. If you don't have the 10 Rage for Shield Block, use Bloodrage -> Shield Block -> Taunt -> Revenge. This combo is the best way to quickly move back towards the top of a mob's hate list, and is extremely handy when fighting mobs that occasionally "dump" aggro by knocking you back and then run towards another party member.

Note that as of patch 1.11, using Taunt permanently gives you threat equal to that of the player who previously had aggro and gives you aggro, which is a big buff over how it previously worked. That being said, using Revenge immediately after Taunt is still the best way to quickly get a headstart over other party members and ensure they won't pull aggro again.

Q. Ok, so if Revenge generate the most hate, what's so cool about Sunder Armor?

A. While Revenge generates more hate per use, it is on a 5 seconds cooldown. Sunder Armor can be spammed repeatedly, so as long as you have the rage for it, it is an excellent way to continue to quickly climb up the mob's hate list while you're waiting for the cooldown on Revenge.

Q. Since Sunder Armor only stacks five times, does spamming Sunder beyond the first five times continue to add aggro?

A. Yes it does. Hate is generated every time you use the ability, and the number of Sunder debuffs on a mob has no effect on aggro whatsoever. For example, if you lose aggro on a mob that already has five Sunders, it is possible to regain aggro by using Sunder Armor a few more times, even if the debuff can't stack any higher.

Q. Is it true that if the Sunder Armor debuff gets "knocked off" by too many other debuffs the aggro associated with it is lost as well?

A. No (see previous question). Neither is any aggro lost when the debuff fades at the end of its 30 seconds duration. Aggro is kept track of separately from the debuff itself.

Q. What can I do to reduce the amount of damage I take in combat, other than getting better gear?

A. Demoralizing Shout, Thunder Clap, Disarm, Shield Block, Shield Block and Shield Block (and Shield Block some more).

Demoralizing Shout reduces all mobs' attack power for 30 seconds and is a good way to get initial aggro on a large group of mobs all at once. Use it as soon as the fight starts and refresh it every 30 seconds to keep the debuff on. To my knowledge, no mobs or bosses are immune to it.
Thunder Clap is another good way to grab initial aggro on multiple mobs at once at the start of a fight because it causes some damage (be careful not to break CC). It also reduces attack speed by 10% for 30 seconds. This effectively means a 10% reduction of physical damage and should be used whenever possible and refreshed every 30 seconds. Works on all mobs and bosses I've run into so far.
Use Disarm on heavy hitting mobs and some bosses (many bosses are immune). It only lasts 6 seconds, but can be a life-saver when you are low on health. Disarm also causes a lot of threat, even though the tooltip doesn't say so.
Shield Block boosts your base % chance to Block by 75, which virtually guarantees that you will block the next attack. Depending on your shield's Block value, you will mitigate a good chunk of damage and in some cases block the attack completely and take no damage. It should also be noted that when tanking mobs 3 level higher than you, the ability effectively eliminates the chance of taking a Crushing Blow while the buff is up, which makes the Shield Block ability a staple of raid tanking.
Stay in Defensive stance. 10% reduction on all damage, physical and magical. It's ok to occasionally switch to Battle or Berzerker to trigger abilities not available in Defensive stance, but make sure you switch right back.

Q. I hear people say that a faster weapon is better for tanking. Why is that?

A. This is mostly true in situations where you are taking so much damage that you are getting "infinite Rage", such as when tanking raid mobs and bosses. If you are spamming Shield Block, Revenge and Sunder Armor as often as the cooldowns allow you and you still have rage leftover, you can use that extra rage to queue up Heroic Strike on every weapon swing, which generates a considerable amount of additional threat. Heroic Strike is an "On next swing" ability, so the faster your weapon, the more often you can use it, and the more threat you build up.

Being able to generate that extra aggro in raid fights means that damage classes don't need to hold back as much and the bad guys can be taken down faster.

Q. What's a "Line of sight pull" and how do I do it?

A. A line of sight pull means to use the line of sight mechanics in the game to force a caster or ranged mob to come to you so your group can fight them at a safe distance from other mobs around their original location. You basically gun or bow-pull the mob in question, then quickly run back behind a corner or a wall where they lose their line of sight on you. This will force them to run towards that corner where your group should be waiting to fight them.

Q. What can I ask of my party members that will help me hold aggro, keep the fights organized and avoid a wipe?

A.

Make sure that the group knows which mobs should be CC'd and in what order the mobs should be killed. Remind your group that everyone should always be attacking the same mob together. If necessary, designate someone to be the Main Assist and instruct everyone else to always attack that person's target.
Tell your group to let you handle all the pulls where not all mobs can be CC'd. If you draw initial aggro, all active mobs in the group will attack you, which makes it easier to quickly build up aggro on each of them, instead of having to pull them all off of another party member.
Ask your teammates to make it a habit on every pull to count to five before starting to attack. In the long run, it's usually better to spend a few extra seconds per pull than to waste many minutes to recover from a wipe.
Designate one party member who will be in charge of slowing down the mobs that run away. You don't have access to Hamstring in Defensive Stance, so it usually makes more sense for someone else to handle that task. Besides, once a mob starts to run away, you should immediately start building aggro on the next target while the rest of the group finishes off the runner.
Remind Rogues, Druids, Hunters and Priests to use their aggro-reducing abilities. Mages and Warlocks who pull aggro should immediately stop attacking and run towards you to help you regain aggro on the mob faster.
Ask Hunters and Warlocks to turn off their pet's Taunt ability (Growl). Explain to them that your ability to hold aggro relies on having enough rage to use your abilities, and that you build up more rage when mobs are hitting you, rather than their pets.
If you are having trouble holding aggro over one particular party member due to gear or level differences, and if you have a Pally in the group, have the Pally give that player Blessing of Salvation so they will generate less aggro.
Ask your Druid or Warlock to cast Thorns or Fire Shield on you and you alone. Those spells exist to help you generate a little bit of extra aggro on mobs that are hitting you. Casting it on the whole party does nothing significant in terms of killing mobs faster, and can add unneeded aggro towards other party members who aren't meant to be taking damage.

Q. Where can I find more information on WoW game mechanics like armor, defense, aggro, etc with lots of numbers, tables and formulas?

A. Satrina's warrior guides page is the best all-in-one warrior theorycraft page I've run into so far, and is still being kept up to date.

Q. Where can I find information specific to end-game raid tanking?

A. Hold the Line; An Endgame Tanking Reference, by Ciderhelm, is an excellent source of information about end-game tanking.