Tanking as ret

[btmorex]

I'm planning on leveling 70-80 as ret. Will I be able to tank normal instances effectively? Mostly I'm concerned about threat since I won't have any of the prot abilities. Anyone on beta have experience with this? Also, my tanking gear isn't great, mostly 70 blues and some pvp epics. I'll be uncrittable because of resilience, but I only have like 12.5k unbuffed health.

What abilities would I use? I'm assuming just like dps as ret except prioritizing consecration over divine storm since it's holy damage. So, something like:

HoW > Judge > CS > consecrate > DS

except on the pull where I'll consecrate early so a healer doesn't grab aggro.

[Ryuusuke]

You will simply need to tell your group to just attack your mob.
With having a bit prot equip you can tank fairly well. Your aggro on one mob should be a lot over those of other players since you DO got a +90% aggro modifier to RFury

Make a killorder and do your normal dmg rotation. Judgements, CS, DS, thats enough to hold aggro, don't even need to put consecrates in between, just at the beginning i'd suggest for given reason

[majiben]

First off do you mean Hammer of wrath for HoW?

Second for trash packs it would follow this prioritization:

Consecrate>ShoR (75)>Divine storm>Judgement>CS

RF and all other tanking stances have an additional 1.43 hidden multiplier to threat meaning your white damage (non holy too) will be doing more threat than your dps's white damage.

On bosses you could probably drop Consecrate from tyour rotation.

[Makaijin]

I would probably swap the priority on DS and judgement depending on the situation mainly because DS now deals physical damage rather than holy. Judgement would be prefered in a single target situation as it will always deal holy damage.

[majiben]

Well that is a trash rotation (mostly AoE). DS does have some Threat advantages despite not being holy damage: It does a small chain heal for threat and it applies your current seal much like HotR.

[btmorex]

Thanks for the replies. I did mean Hammer of Wrath, although by 20% hopefully I'll have a very good threat lead. Sounds like I should be fine with ret at least until 80, which I'm happy about.

[Ryuusuke]

That's blizz's overall intention.
It's possible, it just will be way slower and more .. "dangerous" ..

[towelliee]

Might depend on your tank gear...Like I have T6/6.5 so I could easily handle the beginning areas I would just have a bit less armor..and HP...and no IMP RF...thats not that bad

[mconeone]

You'll do fine.

Judge Pull -> Consecrate -> DS -> single target rotation including consecrate.

DS alone should put you above healing aggro but consecrate is icing on the cake.

[semp]

tanking as ret imo was amazing when Jotw was 33% even though 15% is still ok. In a T4.5ish tank set I taked just about every heroic at level 70 as ret spec. The only instance that gave me any trouble was BM with the stun.

[Nalyn]

I tanked a good bit as ret post 3.0, and it's about as much of a joke to hold agro as it is as prot. There's also an amazing amount of stuff you can tank with a two hander! The only differences really come down to the actual mechanics, as ret your 'ae' ability for agro is divine storm, instead of HoR, both have consecrate, ret gets mana back through judgements instead of block/dodge/parry, and as ret, you're going to be somewhat squishier than as a prot spec (duh!).

[Sithy]

I have been 2 hand tanking heroics, kara and za for the last weeks. I did neuter my ret spec a little bit to grab some avoidance stuff but I have been having a ball . I'll be leveling with the same spec and tank all the starter stuff with my 2h. In a pinch thoug using the shield can be really helpful.

[daemonym]

i ran ret in a kara run last night, had a pally solo tank it who was just gearing up for tanking (they were formerly ret and wanted to check out tanking). i was the designated "oh crap what hapened" tank since i have a teeny bit of tanking experience and happened to be wearing plate. and kara is silly easy atm if you're remotely passed it even so yeah.

on moroes he got gouged several times and i was 2h tanking him just fine, same thing with romeo at opera. though oddly enough, most of the trash hit me harder than the bosses were. but then i threw on my mallet of the tides and sso shield and worked out just fine, threat and mitigation both.

[Spectrum]

I've been doing some tanking as ret in heroics lately because I hate waiting for a tank. The instance that gave me enough trouble to make me temporarily go back to prot was H BF with a 600-sp healer. I switched and it made a huge difference.

I have T4/badge gear, and most of the time I barely feel like there's a difference. My healers get to actually heal in heroics this way too.

[Alanyor]

Sure, it's possible. But I specced prot and did ~20 instances with my guild so far. Easy to pull 2-3 packs at once and aoe. Well, our healer today wasn't in t6 but in blues, so it's definitily possible as ret... but hey, we are tankadins ... !