Tanking Requirements

[Calyse]

My guild has just started doing Kara, but with the heroic badge upgrades, I was wondering if I might be able to start doing Zul'aman.

Unbuffed, I have:
14k health and armor
50% avoidance
250 spell damage

I didn't know if I should try to join up or if my stats are just too low.

--Calyse

[Worldie]

Acceptable.

Basically if you can tank prince, you can tank about everything in ZA also.

Even if it might be quite brutal...

Also, yes you may tank there, but this doesn't mean that your healers will be able to keep you up, and that the DPS will be able to kill the bosses in reasonable time.

[Jeslena]

I wouldn't say if you can tank prince you can tank almost anything in ZA. While it is technically true, it will take a couple runs before you are accustomed to the fights before you'll feel that you can tank anything in the instance. Then again I've only cleared it once and we sort of brute force a lot of the encounters.

[Vanifae]

I am just going to say it, Bear Boss is easier then Prince.

He can't even crush.

If you and your other tank can taunt and your healers have some kind of longevity based on overall DPS output you win.

First kill last night I was MT, the off tank died at 9% and I tanked him down solo.

[Kaelie]

Also, yes you may tank there, but this doesn't mean that your healers will be able to keep you up, and that the DPS will be able to kill the bosses in reasonable time.

This is the problem with having an attunement on Kara and not on ZA. Everyone wants to try it. Half the server was on LFG last night for ZA if their guild wasn't in there, and most of them are in blues/greens. If only half your group has the gear, it's not going to work.

[Sayka]

How well equipt must the offtank (warrior) be for the bear boss?
One of our warriors just specced to protection a week ago and is collecting gear. But he only has like 470 defense skill... (he also has some resilience, so he should be crit immune)

My equip is much better (tanked Prince with 2 healers already (without shadowpriest/offhealer)). Should I tank Bear or Humanoid? Which one hits harder? Armor doesnt mitigate the Bleedings effects, does it?

[Dorvan]

Your stronger tank should be on bear form. 490 defense is absolutely mandatory, but really that's not enough by itself....you'll need 2 tanks capable of tanking Prince-difficulty bosses to get through ZA.

[Sayka]

For now its only about the bear boss. I've read, that he is easy. So it is possible, isnt it?

[Freece]

I just got back into WoW after taking a few months for school, and I used to be one of our main tanks when we were clearing KZ before I left.

I've never had the optimal gear for tanking, but we do alright. This week I was the other tank on our first bear kill because the usual tank couldn't make it. I told the raid leader before we started that I didn't think I had the gear to tank anything in ZA but he said we'd be fine. After wiping once due to a resisted RD on the first rotation >< we took him down flawlessly.

I was tanking bear form which, from what I've read, is the harder hitting of the two forms. My fully buffed HP was just over 17k and I normally have 21% dodge unbuffed. I didn't really have many issues taking the hits, and I had the moroes trinket up every other rotation, though it was more of a little treat for the healers than it was necessary.

Basically, if your other tank is semi-competent, can hit at least 17k hp (shouldn't be hard, I'm still in half blue gear), and a moderate amount of pure avoidance, he should be fine for either form. Just don't let the Human form tank eat a full brutal strike.

[Sabindeus]

Really this guy is all about the bleed damage in his bear form and your healer's ability to heal through it. Having a lot of HP is good for tanking this part. No amount of avoidance is going to save you from the bleeds. So basically your healers just need to make sure you are topped off far enough at all times to survive the silences and you should be fine.

And also the DPS needs to kill him so that the healers don't go OOM but hey you know, that's always the case.

[Talryn]

I just did ZA last night Alliance side (I have a warrior there, no paladin). The other warrior and myself have mostly Karazhan epics. I wouldn't say ZA is easy. There is a decent amount damage being thrown around there. The only drawback is that I'm the sole priest in the guild and since another warrior couldn't make it, I brought my warrior. That meant no Fortitude buff and I'm sure that would have helped.

The Bear boss is very easy overall though. The other bosses seem much, much harder. They hit harder and they require much more effort.

After we killed the Bear boss, we tried the Lynx and Eagle. The Lynx puts out a ton of damage. He has a cleave ability called Saberlash that does a lot of damage even to a decently geared tank. You'll need two tanks up there. We almost downed him last night so I think we'll be able to do it soon, but it's tough for us just because the healers don't have much room for error. The Eagle takes a lot of co-ordination for the raid group as a whole. I can't say we were close on this one and it was getting late.

The good news for paladins is that there is really a need for you here! There is a lot of trash that is just difficult to tank without a paladin.

We had one of our Holy paladins throw on the tank gear that he collected after the warriors got their gear. He doesn't AoE tank or grind and just using RF and Consecrate made it much easier. I kept thinking how great it would have been to have my BE paladin around for it.

I really think a Protection paladin would be a great asset to a ZA raid. It would be great for the Lynx as you could either MT or help eat Saberlash and could possibly even heal yourself then to help out. I think throwing down Consecrate before he splits would help make the pick up smooth. The Eagle boss only has one tank so it gets tricky there.

I also saw my health drop really low on several occasions. I can see AD helping you out there.

[Ocin]

The good news for paladins is that there is really a need for you here! There is a lot of trash that is just difficult to tank without a paladin.

lol...oh thank god the warriors will let us OT. i finally have a purpose. so nice to be needed

[Talryn]

Well, that was meant more to show there is a need for a paladin here. You want two tanks and I'd say warrior and paladin might be the best tanking team for ZA.

I would think a paladin would be a good MT here in many cases. We've been moving slow though since some of our people haven't been able to make it lately.

I'm still upset my paladin isn't on the same place where I raid. I'm missing out on the fun.

[Tekkel]

Best combo is a pally + druid tbh. Since some fights don't use 2 tanks u better use an offtank that can dps as well. Otherwise we need to heal and that works for the hawk boss if your dps is ok but not on the hex lord.

[Stylaan]

Best combo is a pally + druid tbh. Since some fights don't use 2 tanks u better use an offtank that can dps as well. Otherwise we need to heal and that works for the hawk boss if your dps is ok but not on the hex lord.

I healed on Hex Lord after tanking the adds, it was fine really. We might try to burn him down faster this week around though and I'll just tank the adds the entire time through since they aren't very powerful and we'll just straight burn the hex lord down.