Crazy's Proper Tanking Etiquette and Guidelines.(aka advice)

[CrazyJedi]

Let me start this off by telling you who am I and my experience in the game.

My main toon is Crazyknight a paladin tank and retribution off spec.You may remember me from such chats as ''That jerk on guild chat'' or ''I hate grinding'' .Been playing the game for almost 4 years.Started with Crazy as retribution when our nickname was ''Lolret'' then switched to Protection to get into dungeons and raids , been tanking ever since.Was Paladin Officer between mid and end of Burning Crusade and most of Wrath before I took a break from the game.


Tanking as a paladin is in my opinion one of the easiest classes to tank with still is good to have a few tips and starter guides for some of our more slo...*cough* newer paladins players. I'm going to try and make this as simple and short as possible focusing on the main topics rather than specific details that can be discuss later on in other threads.

Also keep in mind, aside from a blue post from Blizzard itself , nothing is written in stone with all this guides. They are a compass to help you along on your own path which are basicly personal conclusions based on experiments and experiences.Having said all this , lets start this dance , may I?





Do you really want to be the selfless tank?


If you are choosing to become a protection paladin theres a few things you need to know that are expected from you before you make your decision.First being a tank overall means you are basicly the most important team member on the group which also means you have a lot of responsitbilities and the expectations of you are high.

The life of others are basicly on your shoulders. You are expected to know your roll better than any other class or role , know the dungeon better even if you are not leading it and be expected usually to have at the least the required gear for the place you are tanking. In other words theres little slacking on this role. So if you're bad at tanking or you're not gear, specced or glyphed properly, you're only going to get others killed. A lot.That is not good reputation for a tank.You can get into heroics fast but with a bad reputation you will be really lucky to get into any raid at all.

The good things about being a tankadin:
-Fast dungeon queing
-If your gear drops usually you don't have to compete with anyone to get it.
-Is probably one if not the easiest tank class in the game.
-If you get bored of tanking you can respecc into healing or dps.
-Unlike our tanking buddies the disease infested, roting deathknights or dumb, madeyes, frenzy warriors we look all brave and pious not to mention damn sexy on our gear.
-We use shields and hammers.

The bad things:
-Theres no bad things baby we are 100% epic!
-Well that last one is not entirely true, we get blamed for wipes first.
-We are expected to have all the required available gear for the level of content you are doing.( NO SLACKING!)
-You are expected to know and in many times already experience or completed dungeons or raids.
-Even if you are not the leader you are expected to explain fights to the group unless theres a designated raid leader already.
-We are so good and popular that theres a lot of us out there so no matter your role , you may find it hard to find a spot into raids.

Regardless being a Paladin overall is fun to level, easy to understand and viable in a lot of roles.



''Go kill me 10 pigs and bring me their skins.''


Aka questing and leveling up.You don't need to know much about what to get for leveling because chances are you are replacing gear almost every half level or faster.Theres still things you need to focus on and specially as a tank.

The stats you need to focus on getting are :

-Stamina
-Strength
-Dodge
-Parry
-Mastery

That is all you need to look for when chosing gear while leveling either on mail or when you are able to wear plate. Hit is essential on top levels but not while leveling.You will get enough from the gear to get through. If you don't see much of the last 3 specially on lower levels you can focus on the first 2 only.

Questing as a tank means pulling more mobs at the time so you can make up for the time it takes you to kill them compared to a regular dps.

When tanking lower level dungeons try practicing as much as you can when the groups allows you to ( not pressuring you into just facerolling the dungeon) mark targets, and testing different abilities and strategies like pulling enemies while breaking their line of sight of you and this forcing spellcasters to come to you rather than staying out of range.

Not much to know when leveling to be honest aside from have fun while you can .




You are the front line.

You carry the team on your shoulders. Without you, nothing else is possible. And your importance as a tank only increases as you level up. At level 85, you will be the most rare and sought after role in the entire game: A tank. This is akin to being the captain of a squadron of fighter planes, and you must guide the team to success.

If you're not a patient and understanding person or you're someone who hates math, then tanking probably isn't for you. End-game tanking requires more min/max research than any other role. That said, if you like being the main focus of attention and have a knack for stepping back and seeing the bigger picture, then you should flourish as a Prot Paladin.You are the pillar that everyone will be leaning on for survival. Healers may be under the most constant pressure and DPS may have the most fun, but you will have the responsibility to understand the fight, to coordinate the encounter, and to be geared enough to keep everyone else alive. You must direct traffic, give orders just as often as listen to advice, and above all, advocate teamwork to the highest degree.

Remember: You need them as much as they need you.



Combat


Basic knowledge you need to know.


Talent builds:

Normal/Balanced build ( 5 mans heroics, etc)
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sZGMhsRddkMucbG

This build is good enough for your day to day heroic dailies and or occasional raids has a nice balance between threat and surviviability.

Heavy threat build
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#s0bZGMhfRddoMuf0h

For Off tanking adds in raids, doing heroic 5 man , and anywhere theres is a lot of area of effect tanking.

Raiding/Heavy surviviability build
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#sZhrhcRkdRRucbG

Threat in raids is debatable and it comes down to raid composition and your current gear. Threat becomes an issue in the first 30 seconds after a pull, after that is all about ....well not dying for the tankadin and doing the proper interrupts and switchings ,etc. This of course based on gear and talent only . You still have to keep threat up with your rotation.

In reality you can play around with talents the more familiar you are with them just read their discription and remember your jobs , keeping threat, survive the big hits and help the group any way you can.

Rotation


Easy , open up with either Avenger's Shield for high threat,Judgement or hand of reckoning then try to build holy power with hammer of the righteous and crusader strike so you can either use a full 3 stack word of glory if you are low on health or threat isn't an issue or shield of the righteous for high threat/dps dmg while sliping through any other damage dealing abilities like Holy Wrath and Consecration.

I personally love to help the healers any way I can so I pop Holy Radiance combined with a tank cooldown(any dmg % reduction or avoidance) so the healer can focus on actually healing the raid with the help of my aoe heal on those big aoe dmg situations ( example , Halls Of Origination and the Alpha Beams aoe dmg ) .

Try to be creative and improvise , I like to do hand of reckoning any time all my abilities are on cooldowns even if I have high threat and the reason is because it puts a taunt ''dot'' on the enemy that force him to attack you for the next 2 to 3 seconds or so and matches your threat numbers if anyone has pass you but haven't pulled from you yet.



Gearing

How and where to get gear changes almost every patch so I will post a reasonable level 85 progression gear list in the next few days ( Need to work tomorrow and there were too many interruptions today) It isn't going to be too complicated as you can see I'm putting all this as simple as I can put it . You are the one that will eventually make a deeper research from different sources (that I will provide that in my opinion help you the most for being a proper tankadin) and come to your own conclusions. For now I'm retiring to bed.

[Shortngeeky]

Ohhhh Shinyyyyyyy. So as a pally I run through, gather 20 mobs then bubble?

[CrazyJedi]

Shortngeeky wrote:

Ohhhh Shinyyyyyyy. So as a pally I run through, gather 20 mobs then bubble?

*ahem* Pretty much whatever you want to do on low levels :P , haven't added raid and heroics yet on top levels :P.

[Beeastt]

great guide! good info plus you made it fun to read and it sounds like it comes from a tank with experience, not some generic wow post. nicely done.