Tanking for Dummies

 

Another interesting heroic group has led to the 2nd post in the “Dummies” series. The offender was once again of a class and spec that I am fairly familiar with. Today, I’m not going into the specifics of each tanking class, but I will point out the basics that all tanks should know.

Before I dissect basic tanking principles, I’ll share with you the inspiration for this post. A former guild member, and fellow rogue wanted to run heroic Gundrak. He had already found a tank, so we needed 2 DPS and a healer. I had recently respecced Retributrion on my Paladin, and I didn’t want to roll against my friend, so I took Anabelle, and grabbed my wife to heal as well as a hunter from my guild.

I’ll admit things weren’t too bad until just before the second boss, but that’s when things went south. I was going to write about it here, but its long enough to warrant its own post. To sum it up, neither skill or gear were on this person’s side, and after he left before the 3rd boss, I successfully tanked all but the last boss, despite the fact that I was Ret. My wife commented that I was easier to heal. We had our guilds main tank come in for the last boss, as he hit me for 6-10K per hit, though we did manage to get him 13% with me tanking. It was a 1 shot with the main tank, and the fiasco over.

What follows is a detailed description of the basics of tanking. Due to the depth of the subject, it is rather lengthy; it’s probably the longest post I’ve written.  However, if you are new to tanking, or even a veteran that wants to read another’s perspective on the subject, it’s there for you to peruse.

DPS for Dummies

While I was on break, I had the unfortunate pleasure of grouping with a Rogue in a group that was, for lack of a better term, terribad.  My wife, a Hunter from our guild, and myself, joined forces with a Death Knight, and the Rogue to take down Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. 

Things went relatively smoothly until we got to Goretok Palehoof.  That took a few attempts, but he was eventually downed.  Then there were a more than a few attempts on the gauntlet, before we downed Skadi the Ruthess.  The problems with both events were usually attributed to healer and/or DPS death, the cause usually being early or spread DPS.

We finally got to King Ymiron, wiping 3 times, when the rogue, who had been whining about my wife’s ability to heal the whole time, finally upset me enough to say “I’ve got a 2k damage Elemental Shaman that would love your spot.”  He didn’t utter another word and was the the first person to die (again).  He then left the group after rezzing, which happened to be just in time for trash to respawn at the beginning, ending our Heroic run.  Using Recount, and the WoW Armory, I was able to uncover that he used no health pots throughout the run, had a grand total of zero First Aid skill, and pulled an astonishing 1100 DPS.  Adding all of that up, and the attitude that this Rogue had that he was better than everyone else in our group, I got a fire lit in me to post about it.

Now, I’m not the best tank in the game, and I have my shortcomings, but with a competant group, I can clear any Heroic.  So today, I’ve got a few pointers to hand out to the DPSers of the world, to hopefully make life easier on the Tanks and Heals.