Comments on: Reader Mail – Finding the Confidence to Tank

By: Sil

Sil — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:50:52 +0000

I’m really greatful for this post :) I was thinking of switching from resto/boomkin to resto/bear and this post was something that made me even more determined to do it now. I am also one of those people who is quite scared of starting to tank. ;)

By: Kauket

Kauket — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:08:18 +0000

Great advice from all, but one quite important thing is to keep a sense of humor about the asshats. Print out Tamarind's Tardbingo for a side-game that will counter unpleasant encounters. Let them wonder why you're occasionally /yelling BINGO!

By: Murklins

Murklins — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:38:58 +0000

Thanks for this post – My main toon is a holy priest like Feraldawn and I’m slowly leveling a bear tank as my boyfriend levels a tree healer. Although we do like to level together, it’s been hard for us to play at the same time lately and since tanking is a role I’m not yet fully confident or competent in, I am sometimes hesitant to use the random queue for dungeons.

This post and all the comments were really encouraging! I do think playing a healer has helped me somewhat – I always keep an eye on my healer and try to taunt off asap if I have a mob break lose.

I also believe in the don’t pull if you can’t kill practice, although right now my bear tank is only just past lvl 25 so it’s still reasonably hard for me to keep threat on multiple mobs. It’s quite funny if my boyfriend is my pocket healer because he refuses to heal folks that repeatedly run ahead and pull.

I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog – tis on my bookmarks now and I read it daily. Your readers are great, too!

By: Tulon

Tulon — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 23:05:08 +0000

What’s already been said is golden. Do your homework – gear appropriately and understand your basic moves and mechanics. Then keep your chin up and your outlook positive. You’re THE tank. You can be the anchor by not only holding aggro but keeping morale solid.

A key source of self confidence is the LFD tool. Go ahead and queue up as DPS. In my experience, that’s an average wait of 20min before you’re going to see the inside of an instance. Now queue up as a tank. Bam. Almost instant queue on most days (YMMV). Now watch everyone acknowledge. Usually the tank (OK – that’s you) and the healer are johnny-on-the-spot. Some DPS are there. And then there’s the poor guy who’s been waiting so long, he fell asleep and missed the queue timeout.

The lesson here is that as a tank, you’re already a rare commodity. You’ve volunteered to do something that relatively few others do (how many DPS paladins do I see). The jerks can go back to surfing the queue if they don’t like your tanking. That doesn’t excuse bad behavior on your part. But if you’re doing the basics and holding down your end, then you’re already doing something relatively few others are willing to bother with.

In my experience, when someone is giving me grief (relatively rare – and I do accept there’s a difference between constructive criticism and grief), I’ve offered them to leave. No skin off my nose. We can pick up another DPS any time we need (I don’t know what it is, but I’ve rarely had grief from my healer even when I’m being stingy on my cooldowns or have been a little squishy for the instance I tried to tackle). Most times, the heckler will quieten down and everyone can get to the job at hand. I leveled from 57 to 80 almost entirely via LFD (and a healing druid partner). There was one time when we had someone so annoying that we bailed (jerk rogue who’d run off way ahead of everyone to do a Tricks-of-the-trade pull).

So don’t worry about it. Gear up, limber up, and put down your paw. None shall pass – friend or foe alike.

(…and at some point… consider that modesty is also good… but only after you’ve got your confidence issue handled….)

By: Marshall

Marshall — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:55:31 +0000

Agh. I can’t seem to see an edit button, so maybe I can be obliged to get this added in to my just added comment:

If you have a Bear friend you can run around with in dungeons (Heroic or normal), follow them as Cat and have them tell you what tactics they use for specific stuff. Some you’ll pick up on your own (boring trash, SwipeSwipeSwipe), some you may need to get pointed on to. But if you have a Bear friend, it can make your experiences a bit easier.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:50:49 +0000

I can definitely attest to Bears & Cats in different gear. I’m currently raiding as both, though my cat spec comes first when it comes to armor drops. Rings/Neck/Trinks/Back you can typically go with the melee-DPS-based, Agility increasing ones for Cat (Ashen Band of Vengeance, Herkuml War Token), while Bears would go with tank-based, Strength increasing ones (Corroded Skeleton Key, Ashen Band of Courage). Granted, so far I’ve pretty much just upgraded my Cat gear, regemmed it if appropriate for Stamina (or if it’s got a decent enough bonus, a Stam/etc. gem), and bam, it’s Bear. Granted, as from the above possibilities, some stuff just doesn’t work well from Cat to Bear. Yes, while some of the Trinks out there can be useful for a Bear for threat generation/etc., there’s many more out there that are more useful (adding defensive cooldowns, stamina, or what have you).

The main problem I have right now is not having a second weapon. My Cat weapon is enchanted with Berserking, which doesn’t work all that well with tanking. I keep waiting for that Hersir’s Greatspear or Shaft of Glacial Ice (or God help me, Tainted Twig of Nordrassil/Warmace of Menethil) drop in ICC10, but until that day, I’m tanking with Berserking.

By: Huufa

Huufa — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:44:39 +0000

I remember how timid I was when I started tanking. I was slow to start because of everything mentioned above. When you dive into tanking you simply need a few tools, BBB and as mentioned Tidy/Threat Plates which was a God send after I discovered them. Check your talents against other bears. Ask questions if given the opportunity by another bear. If you are in a guild, it’s the best way to practice with heroics. Some days you can chain a few heroics with people who are at or near your same level. When it’s time for raids, you will not be tanking by yourself so do not let the anxiety of raiding bother you either.

If you have not checked out the “Chasing Bear Aggro” post yet, click the Bear Aggro Issues link in the right column. It’s safe to say BBB and the posters who reply here are really helpful. I think each tip is worth a look. I wish I had known BBB was here when I started tanking. I would have jumped in sooner :)

By: Ecclesiastical Discipline

Ecclesiastical Discipline — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:48:27 +0000

As a long time healer, trying to pick up some tanking skills myself, I feel you. Confidence is a big deal. Here are a few things that worked for me:

- Pick a nice happy instance you like, one of the lower level heroics. Just one. Get a tanky friend to run it with you on your main/healer. Have them in vent explaining every single pull. Why they used LoS here, which pulls have casters, where they need to silence the casters, who hits really hard, what boss mechanics they watch out for, everything. If you don’t have a helpful meat shield friend, try doing some research on the instance. Make sure you know the layout, where to go next, what kind of cleanses are needed, whether there are stuns or silences, everything you can think of. Run it several times until you know it well; as many times as you need to.

- Find a well geared healer you respect. Bake them cookies or bribe them with fish feasts or whatever…but ask them very kindly to queue with you for a few trial runs on your chosen instance. Having someone you *know* can heal you and the group even if you make a mistake does wonders. Someone you know can keep up with you and won’t suddenly go afk. You won’t believe how much more confidant you feel knowing someone you trust has your back.

- Go faster than you think you should….but be careful pulling multiple packs.

- Be aware of your healer’s mana bar before every pull. That’s what’s going to keep you alive.

Best of luck!

By: Earthsong

Earthsong — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:32:32 +0000

Feraldawn I hope your reading this or that BBB will pass it onto you. Some healers will give you problems but in majority we look after our tanks. What he said about announce your still warming up is completely true and lets a healer prepare more.

My healers are all well geared up so a non perfect tank makes it a challenge, and excitement I don’t usually get. if I have time Ill run a couple more instances with them to help with the badges.

By: Herr Drache

Herr Drache — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:11:04 +0000

Self confidence and tanking – oh boy, this takes me back :)
I learned how to (prot warrior) tank in BC with a sometimes patient, sometimes sarcastic pocket-healer. Having your own healer helps! And yes, even though I’m sporting ICC gear, no, I don’t heroic in it (rage, where do I buy that?), so people at times point at my gearscore, which I refuse to seriously look up, and giggle – and then note my DPS rings/trinkets and “only 35K health”. Fine. Quit. You’re DPS, which means I have to wait what, 10 seconds? My healer never complained – and if the healer happens to be newish, I can always pull slower or put on “thicker” gear. OK, all that doesn’t help you, sorry :)
I like the idea of doing regular instances first. People will be glad to see you! That’s a confidence boost in itself.
If you have friends or guildmates, ask them to help you out in heroics. The other day we went to heroic UP with a new DK tank (wearing some greens, even). The one pug, a geared rogue, asked us to kick him “because the tank is undergeared”. We obliged, got a replacement in 10 seconds, and proceeded through the instance. It wasn’t a speed run, but it didn’t take an hour either, and I think only once did a DPS die – and that wasn’t even during the gauntlet.
The trick to success? DK marked the target, we hit it, and we watched omen. And we had a good healer!

Now that I’m pugging on my mage, I’d almost suggest this: Queue kitty-dps and wait until you run into a completely arrogant idiot tank – likely a dual-wielding DK or a geared arrogant mad-pulling paladin. Should only take 1-2 queues. See them drop or pull stupid 2-4 times in a row, die, and drop group (or in case of the pally, wipe everyone except the healer and spend 5 minutes downing the boss, be an asshat, and then drop group). Ask your group if it’s OK with them if you go bear… Success!

Thick skin. Tell ‘em you’re relatively new. Tell ‘em again. Tell ‘em that “Skull” doesn’t mean “dies last”. And if they still don’t listen, well, if they die the mob should come back to you :) Again, this is easier if you know the healer :)

Good luck, and don’t let “them” get to you!