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Some tanking questions
I've never played a tank in this game, but I don't understand them much. I hear that warriors are only good when they have the absolute best equipment; otherwise Bear Druids or Paladins are better tanks.
Is this true? I'd love to make a warrior, but don't want to do it if it's nothing but an exercise in pain.
My other concern is, though I like to group, often you just have to solo. Can a protection specced warrior do this if he swaps his gear around, or is it just boring/impossible to do?
Is this true? I'd love to make a warrior, but don't want to do it if it's nothing but an exercise in pain.
My other concern is, though I like to group, often you just have to solo. Can a protection specced warrior do this if he swaps his gear around, or is it just boring/impossible to do?
Comments
I guess it depends what you're tanking. If you want to be main tank for a raid then you should have top-notch equipment, although if your guild has selected you as main tank you should expect other guild members to help you gear up.
For tanking five mans top-notch equipment isn't necessary, although it's good to have equipment that's not significantly behind other group members. A friend of mine managed to achieve a reputation for being a good tank for end-game 5-man instances whilst wearing mainly greens, albeit greens that had been specifically chosen for tanking. Most tanks spend a lot of their time in instances, and hence automatically acquire reasonable quality gear.
Personally I'd say that until you reach max level, gear quality isn't the most important aspect of playing a tank. The first is knowing how to tank - which skills generate aggro, and a general awareness of the situation around you. You will often be given the job of marking targets, and it helps a lot to have the tactical knowledge to work out which targets to dps and which to CC. You will be expected to lead the party in instances, and knowing the instance beforehand can allow the group to avoid a lot of problems.
Another important aspect of tanking is spec. Any warrior can tank, but prot warriors have an advantage in this role. I personally rate protection spec as being worth an extra couple of levels when I recruit a tank for an instance.
Other classes
Your friends are plain wrong. Whilst warriors are gear dependent, so are all tanks. Aggro generation is dependent on gear for everyone, as is damage mitigation. Different tanking classes do have their pros and cons, but those don't relate to how easy it is to gear up.
If anything, druids are most gear dependent. Their bear form works by multiplying armour and stamina values of the base gear. Hence a small change in the armour value of the leather can make a big difference to the armour of the dire bear.
Paladin tanks also have gear problems. Whilst warriors only have to worry about physical stats, paladins also have to maintain adequate levels of mana and spell damage to tank effectively. Hence they may have to make compromises with gear and will have to work hard to maintain similar levels of armour and other defensive stats as a warrior.
Levelling
It's perfectly possible to level with a prot warrior, especially if you keep a spare set of DPS gear. Levelling may be a little slower than other players, but you will also be very hard to kill, and hence many quests won't be much harder to complete. Concentrate on getting your xp from quests rather than grinding, and go to instances whenever you have sufficient time available.
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Until you are 60....be Fury or Arms. For the instances or anything that requires tanking you'll be fine.
At 60 being Prot aids greatly in aggro generation (keeping the monsters stuck on you like glue)
The key thing to leveling fast is to have plenty of gold to buy nice blue weapons every 3-5 levels. Gear-wise concentrate on Crit + Str + Agi.
Once you are 60 you can start getting more Sta + Agi + Def gear instead.
Also keep in mind unless you plan to devote your life to WoW like I unfortunately did for 2+ years, then you really could do just as well tanking 5 mans as a Fury or Arms warr (it's the 25 mans where Prot is necessary). But thats why you try them out leveling so you at least know what they are like and can make the decision for yourself when the time comes.
Totally agree there Koranuso,
My g/f is just learning how to be a draenei tank, she has nice hear and will have until she is 60-70. She is fury specced at the mo - lvl 45ish and duel wielding. We went in Uldaman last night me with my 50 Priest and we had no problems what so ever, she had just over 2300hp.
Now my main is a Pally, and I can honestly say being very experienced in Raids pre BC, Paladins are great Tanks! But can only tank Off-Tank in a five man group. You have a Pally as a main tank in Strat - be aware that he can not taunt as well as Warriors... The chances are that a Pally will get a grp killed far more often than a crap warrior will. Yes you can get away with a Pally as a main tank in 5-man grps in instances but do not rely that a pally is as good at tanking as a warrior!
In 15+ man Raid grps, Pallys become the main healers as the priest and resto druids are healing the main tanks - sometimes the grp too but only as backup. Pallys in my experience do not get much chance of getting the good loot, as it is always passed onto Warriors first. Why? Because if a warrior dies the whole group dies.... You may object but it depends on the person sitting behind the computer - bear in mind though - tanking is not easy and not everyone has the gift of being a really good tank.
Anyway, after playing WoW for 2+ years also i have decided to take a break - playing LOTRo now for a while... Not a traiter just need new content and a new challenge...
Peace Out
R3PooC
------------------------------------------------
I tried to get out - but they pulled me back in.
Arms still offers decent damage, but it's real strength is in pvp, where it's ability to interfere with enemy healing via mortal strike makes many of the hybrid classes far easier to kill.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
Prot tank since 2005, leveled in prot from lvl 10.
Yes it is harder to lvl as prot, harder being slower. You won't get hurt as much though.
There's 3 classes of Warriors in the game.
Those that suck at tanking (75%)
Those that are decent and can hold maybe 3 mobs if they're lucky (20%)
Those that actually know what they're doing, can tank up to 9 mobs in 5 man-instances, if gear allows it, protect their healer at all cost and instinctively know what to do,how and when to do it.(5%)
I'm just going to show some balls and say, I'm part of the 5%.
There are about 10 people on any given server that actually know how to tank in 5-man instances.
The tank controls the proceeding of the instance. There is not a damn thing anyone else does without me planning it, if they fuck it up, I'm HS out, or summoned to the next instance.
If tBC did anything, it was make me wanted. Where pre-tBC the crowd /rofl'd at me being Prot, they actually care these days. Not to mention that I actually c