Want to tank, fear of doing so

[Freak 0]

Hello for a long time now I have wanted to tank but I've always been scared to do so i'm not scared of the actual tanking part i'm scared of tanking in a group with random people would anyone have any tips to get over said fear? Also for someone newer to tanking which class would be better? Druid or Death Knight

[PaasHaaS 81]

I can't help with the tanking, but I can suggest using another font-colour, as this one is very hard to read here (black on blue).

[Freak 0]

EDIT: Fixed - I'm stupid.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Freak

[FichtenMoped 11]

At one point I just created a new Char (Prot Pala) Which is now basically my main and I just tanked throughout the leveling phase to get used to it. Best advice is: Learning by doing so just do it.

[AlanStrosnider 1]

i completely understand your fear, every single tank has gone through this at some point. In my experience, ive found that by knowing the content, knowing your class, knowing the pulls, and boss mechanics, and having good situational awareness, prepares you much better and really serves to ramp up your confidence. As far as tanking in randoms, inevitably, someone is gonna say something, pull mobs etc... Its just the nature of the beast. Shrug it off, be polite. For the most part people are respectful and courteous and thankful, keep in mind they have that same fear of tanking/healing, else they would be doing it as well,rather than roll dps. Fichten makes a great point, learn by doing and just have fun! As far as which class, both classes are doing quite well, play what you like!

Edited April 27, 2017 by AlanStrosnider

[RennWolf 0]

I had the same fear before. Not even nescessarily of screwing up in randoms, but fear of screwing up in front of my friends and not being able to handle the responsibility of tanking. I always refused to tank, until my friend started his own guild and asked me to be one of the tanks. We didn't have another, so I agreed. I didn't want to delay raiding just because I was scared. And I am just so happy I agreed, because I absolutely love tanking (I'm a DK). I tanked a couple low dungeons before, leveled in blood spec before etc, so I had that experience, but by looking up the basic tank tactics for each boss, toroughly communicating with my co-tank (we're even good friends now!) and quite some trial and error (I still screw up sometimes, and my friends love to remind me, but we all just laugh it off anyway) I truly love tanking now. So my advice is: Just do it! (with friends if possible)

[Doobkut 0]

I've just started tanking over the last couple of weeks. I know exactly what you mean. I started tanking normal dungeons before going on to mythics and mythic+. I have to be honest. I didn't learn much about boss mechanics in normal dungeons as people just zerg the boss down. 

I've done ok in mythic+ but failed a couple of times. I get butterflies before starting an m+. I plan to watch the Fatboss Bitesize videos on youtube for tips before i go in to high lvl m+. 

So, my advice is just to learn by doing - until you get to harder content. Then it's worth knowing what's what. 

 

[Lamuria 6]

there is no reason to fear tanking even with the skittish mechanic just do the best you can and you may suprise yourself. Personally i just run in half the time hit a bunch of things and hope i don't die cause i like to be that guy that pulls everything. i tank on multiple different classes and have done so on every one throughout different expansions if you would like me to try to help you some you are free to ask anytime. Lamuria#11827

[Maxillary 0]

Welcome to the world of tanking!

First, the question that everyone asks. Which class should I play. The generic answer is always going to be 'whatever you want or enjoy the most' very few people are prepared to give an honest answer. Sco (MT for method) has actually done a video on this back at the start of legion, his recommendation (based on the state of things at the time) was Warrior for beginning raiding. 

However, if you're just starting out fresh, and have never tanked before (or are brand new to WoW), this may not the the very best for you. A few months ago I re-rolled a tank, and tried Pally, War, and then settled on Druid (I have no experience with the other tanks). This is the conclusion that I came to: For the very beginner, just wanting to get their feet wet with tanking, Pally's are the 'can't screw it up' tank at low levels. Read that again, at low levels. At high levels pally's can be very challenging. Warrior's are pretty good too, a strong class that is a bit less forgiving at low levels but can be forgiving at higher (N and H raids) levels too (this is probably why Sco recommended it as a beginner raid tank). Druids can be less forgiving by themselves, but can be carried by a strong healer, druid tanks have a lot of DC's so their strength is in knowing the fights and knowing what's coming next. 

If you're serious about tanking and want an easy entry, I was really happy with how I went about it (all my tanks were boosted to 100). I started with a pally and levelled her as prot through dungeons. Here I learnt how to pull, the route of the dungeons and the basics of active mitigation (shield of the righteous) which stacks, so you don't get punished for screwing it up, and you can get almost 100% up time. I also learnt how to keep and eye on my health with Light of the Protector. As soon as I reached 110, I rolled a Warrior. Here I learnt how to do better pulls (Could no longer rely on Avenger's Shield when I screwed it up) and active mitigation was less passive as I needed to choose between Shield Block or Ignore Pain and could become rage starved if I screwed it up. With no self heal, I stared to become more aware of my healer and I could see when I had screwed up. Once I reached lvl108-109, I decided that I'd learnt enough from my Warrior to now roll my druid. With a druid I was able to bring in what I'd learnt previously, but my game play now needed to be less reactive and more proactive with my DC's and choices about active mitigation needing to be made in advance before the ability was telegraphed. 

 

As to how to get over the fear of screwing up: First, Some people prefer the anonymity of pugging, while others prefer the supportive environment of friends and guildies, pick which you prefer and start there. Second, I accepted the reality that everyone screws up and makes mistakes no matter what level you play at, the difference between a DPS and a tank, is that DPS can usually hide their mistakes pretty easily. Tanks, on the other had can not. If you screw up someone is probably going to die. I think the best thing you can do is accept that you make no more or less mistakes than anyone else, it's just that yours are more public. I see this as a positive because you get immediate feedback (by seeing someones health drop) and therefore can improve. The best way to improve is by learning from your mistakes, as tanks we have more opportunity to do that. Third: the very best things I did was make a macro that I used at the start of every dungeon until I was confident in my ability, it went something like this "Hi guys, I'm brand new to tanking so apologies in advance if I get us all killed and please remember that I still love you. Any feedback on how I can improve is greatly appreciated" this had amazing results. After I started using it people were super nice and super forgiving if I screwed up. During the whole process of levelling three tanks through dungeons I can only remember two people who were jerks when I screwed up, where before I used it, people were much less forgiving of my mistakes. 

 

If you want some more on how to improve and be a great tank, I submitted the below post when I had just started out tanking a few months ago, I got some great responses and it's really worth having a look at:

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Maxillary

[Dvanom 34]

There is nothing to fear, just do everything step by step normal, heroic, mythic, mythic +.

If you are not confident enough let the people know that you are no uber pro master tank ilvl999, and if in raids always communicate with the other tank, even ask for Tips, most tanks I know are cool guys :)

Try to read or view guides for mythics/raids.

Most of the time people are grateful that you are tanking, and are not blaming or being toxic towards you. Even if they are you shouldn't bother, they can kick you and look for a new tank for a few hours ;)

I think the most reliable tank is the Druid. Sturdy, hp is not jumping up and down. In comparison to DK, Druid is the 100 times better one.

[Valks 2,375]

On 6/6/2017 at 1:21 PM, Dvanom said:

Most of the time people are grateful that you are tanking, and are not blaming or being toxic towards you. Even if they are you shouldn't bother, they can kick you and look for a new tank for a few hours ;)

This does seem like a common thing that people seem to not notice - tanks are very rarely flamed unless they are wiping a raid. If you know the tactics, you should be fine. You don't need to be a god at them, predicting the abilities 10 seconds before they come out, but if you watch your DBM/BigWigs and know what each ability does, you're absolutely fine. 

Also, talk to the other tank in raids. They would rather help you than wipe, I'm sure.

[SinanDira 6]

I would suggest perhaps honing your tanking skills in the proving grounds or by soloing dungeon bosses. Improving your solo sustain is the first part, the second one would be to learn mythic boss mechanics (once you get there, which is a group commitment, not just yours) and that's it!

[Vayra 12]

Qualities of a good tank in order of importance

- Awareness
Key to success. Awareness is not just avoiding nasty shit, its being ahead of it. For tanks, this means not just being aware of mobs/bosses and when to mitigate etc., but above all, it means being aware of the group behind you. You're the one that needs to serve the DPS targets on a silver platter and keep yourself healable, and the better you can do that, the more effective you can make the entire group.

- Knowledge
Good tanks are a walking encyclopedia, knowing in detail how to progress through an instance, what mobs need to die first, what can be skipped, and what can be pulled.

- Execution
Knowing what to do and when, and then actually doing it. This one comes last because mistakes in execution can be covered for by the rest of the group (spot heals, interrupts, taunt swap, kiting, etc.).

While the first two qualities are entirely up to you, these are also the two that will show the rest of the group most how good you really are at tanking. You are the party starter, you need to set the pace, and a tank that can quickly decide what pace the group needs to be successful, is a tank that will be loved. We all know the tanks on a sugar rush that bluntly pull whole rooms and then waste time fixing the mess, they think they're faster, but in practice, they screw the group and themselves. There is a pace for every instance, every group compo that fits well. Try to get a feel for that, especially in M+.

Just yesterday our guild group found a pug tank for M+16 that ticked all these boxes and proved once again how vital the above qualities really are. This tank had good questions for us too: 'aiming for 2 or 3 chest'? was a good example of a question directly related to 'what pace do you need'. Suffice to say, the M+ was completed and it was good fun.

Good tanks communicate, are patient, and are not shy to tell people what's what either when they screw up. This demands a type of respect that is extremely rewarding and probably what makes tanking worth it in the end. Always keep in mind that tanking is undoubtedly the hardest role in the game, and people do recognize that and will/should cut you the most slack out of anyone in the group.

If you're on the fence about what class; anything but a Demon Hunter. They can't mitigate well, have shit utility, and are not wanted in most raid setups. Brewmaster and Blood DK is in a really good place right now, and reward good play generously, and Guardian Druids really always have been solid. Warrior has a high skill cap and little room for error, while not rewarding very good play all too well either. Paladins are great for a mad amount of Mythic + situations.

Good luck!

Edited July 14, 2017 by Vayra

[Kotoy 0]

I understand your situation as it's for me too. I can tank M+ but not LFRs :D My pally is 931 ilvl, so until now i tanked every well M+10 with sanguine volcanic and the one which enrages non-boss enemies (can't remember the name). All went really well, but i also needed to heal the healer couple of times with light of the protector as he was almost dead. Those kind of reflexes build you up as a good tank, although there is much to learn if you need to go on raiding. (boss tank mechanics, tank switching, etc)

In terms on which tank yo play, this is totally up to you. Haven't tanked end game heroics to give you a honest opinion, but i love my pally and i also love my DK when i switch it from dps when i need it. But all these types have self healing capability so it's easier to play them. 

The problem is at mid level content (specially m+) that you never know how much to pull so you are not wiping. This is a medium term trial and error depending on how confident you are on your character and of course the gear on it. 

 

I think it counts on what you want to do with your tank: going m+ upper on the ladder or end game tanking, because there are different paths in my opinion (not much different, but still)

[Aizensama88 2]

I will tell you what i did with my blook dk and vengeance dh, after hitting 110 i did some mythics and got around 850ilvl i think? i didn't waste time, i just created a group and tanked hc guldan at this ilvl and i didn't even know tactics as tank for guldan, yes i got flamed by many since i had like 4m hp which was terrible and i was dieing a lot but thankfully the other people were overgeared and we did it, you should care less about what others say, tanking is one of the easiest roles but it's not very fun at all, the fun part is that you feel like a pilot, you have a high responsibility role and you are the center of attention and you hear everyone on discord talking about you but other than that its a really boring role.

[Valks 2,375]

This thread is nearly a year old and has received numerous necros. Stop. 

Locking it.