[Warrior]Low-lvl tanking

[Arjuna]

Decided to start levling a warrior...

but I have such problems with tanking at low lvls, rage starved...

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

[hoho]

Don't bother using more rage-using abilities than needed. You don't really have to make every swing into cleave or HS. Also, revenge is awesome, cleaving for huge damage at very low cost is nice. Also, you can always just pull more mobs

[sherck]

Rage management is one of the more fun things that I have recently experienced in WoW. Somewhat frusterating at times but fun.

The thing that I have recently found out about is that once you do your "initial" aggro stuff (Charge, Thunderclap, Demo Shout, Cleave, whatever), then start tabbing around targets and looking at your Omen meter. If you have a large threat lead, then tab to the next target. If a DPS is more the 1/2 your threat (see addon below), throw some single target hurt (even just an auto attack or two) on that mob and move on.

I had been clicking on my Swipe (with Maul maccroed to it) whenever my Rage hit 15 pretty much just because. Once I started watching my Omen meter as I tabbed around, I stopped using abilites so fast and started using them more tactically and my Rage bar pretty much stays full during a pull so I can start the next pull with a near full bar.

It also helps that I can Innevate the healer every 3 minutes so that we pretty much never need to stop to drink if they are any good at all.

I also highly recommend the addons Tiny Plates and Threat Plates. It puts a color code (green is good, yellow is your losing aggro, red means you lost aggro) around their nameplates so you can visually see when you lose aggro. I lowered my "yellow" setting down to 50% from the default 80% so I knew better who I needed to apply hurt to.

Those things have helped me a lot as a Rage tanker.

Cheers,

[Vorianloken]

I highly recommend getting TinyPlates/ThreatPlates. It R Awesome.

At the lower levels, until you pick shield slam and shield block, I used to quest in battle stance with the attached abilities. Once I got those though, I stay in defensive stance for questing. Pick up as much str mail/plate as you can.

Warbringer, Improved Revenge, Glyph of Resonating Power, Focused Rage are just amazing talents/glyphs from my limited experience for leveling.

Just can't wait till I get Heroic Throw for pulling

[bldavis]

use bloodrage when ever its off cd and your below 50% rage, but that is basic warrior knowledge

when i tank on my warrior, i open with tuant and sunder/t-clap(or hs if single tar)/rend and then hit shield block if its up. by the time the duration is up, you should be back at 75%+ rage.

and chain pull as much as your healer can handle.

[Jedah]

use bloodrage when ever its off cd and your below 50% rage, but that is basic warrior knowledge

I tend to save bloodrage for whenever I need rage but don't have any. That's just me, though.

[Hokahey]

Its somehow hard for me to remember what the world was like before having Warbringer.

Throw/Shoot, then pop Bloodrage. Popping Bloodrage gives you a teensy bit of threat that'll at least get stuff moving your way. Of course, if the healer has a HoT on you, it'll be enough healing to aggro mobs to them instead. I still frequently do this at lvl 80.

Learn to "float" your Rage. Toward the end of a pull, when you have threat securely, slow/stop actively tanking the last mob. I usually start moving to the next pull at this point, but you don't have to. Moving to each new pull with a near full Rage bar helps immensely, particularly in PuGs. Make sure you're only using HS/Cleave when you have more than 50 Rage (when you're having issues with Rage).

Avoid using Taunt to pull. Its bad form, and puts you in a bad spot if things go sideways right off the bat.

Heroic Throw is nice to pull with, but I prefer to keep it handy for the ranged Interrupt/Silence when I can. Generally, once you get Warbringer, the vast majority of your pulling will be with Charge. Even when you want to pull things back, its Throw/Shoot, Bloodrage, run away, Charge when they get where you want to tank them at.

[bldavis]

use bloodrage when ever its off cd and your below 50% rage, but that is basic warrior knowledge

I tend to save bloodrage for whenever I need rage but don't have any. That's just me, though.

there is a couple other abilities you get that give you rage as well, i use those when im in the middle of a fight and need a boost, or ill pop a rage potion (but then again i also have my own alch so...)

edit: abilites like Berserkers Rage are nice mid fight, esp when in a pack and combined with Shield Block who says warriors cant aoe tank? t-clap/cleave with SBlock up

[sherck]

or ill pop a rage potion

Good golly, my bear is level 49 and I never even THOUGHT to have my Priest Alch make Rage potions for my Bear. Goodness, I R DUMB.

Question, does a Rage potion share the same CD as a Healing potion? I find with RDF healers that I sometimes need to use a Healing potion when I run too far ahead and they are not used to chain pulling groups of mobs.

Cheers,

[Jedah]

Rage pots share a cooldown with all other potions.

[bldavis]

Rage pots share a cooldown with all other potions.

sadly they do

i only really use them when im with a good healer, but then with a poor healer, im constanly resting so i can re-pop my b-rage

[amh]

Slight thread ninja here.

Arms at level 80. How much better is an axe than a sword? Swapped from my Justicebringer to my rubbish sword (and obviously respecced), and dps seems to have plummeted. Don't have a log to provide for this, especially since I swapped back to fury, but my dps was just terrible in comparison. Some of it due to the fact that I hadn't played arms in a while, but it just seemed really crap compared to my axe.

[Levantine]

It might be that the axe has a higher top and bottom end due to the speed of it. I can't remember what's normalised and what isn't in the warrior world, I have a hunch that slam isn't though I can't remember how much dps that accounts for. The sword has a boatload of hit on it at the loss of the axe's armor pen, which you might not have geared around.

[Flex]

Slight thread ninja here.

Arms at level 80. How much better is an axe than a sword?

Axe spec is pretty much the tops arms spec.

Also your sword skill isn't like 200 is it?

[amh]

Yeah, way overcapped on hit with the sword, and the loss of 6,6% ArPen hurts. It's probably mostly me not having played Arms in a while. Spending too much rage on HS rather than slam.

And my 2h sword skill is quite maxed, thankyouverymuch! :)