experts, yes I am talking to you

[gronc2]

I am new to WOW, to tanking, to tankadins and it is even my first MMO

I have worked hard, read, watched videos, and played a lot. My toon http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/gundrak/Gronc/simple is now getting ready to start raiding, and I am hoping to become a very good tank. I am obsessive, and work very hard. My question is, what are the one or two tips you would give at this point towards maximizing my effectiveness.

gronc

[Klaudandus]

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31912
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29589

[gronc2]

I was hoping for something that is a personal trick, or focus, or mantra. I have read those. I will read them again.

gronc

[Klaudandus]

I was hoping for something that is a personal trick, or focus, or mantra. I have read those. I will read them again.

gronc

Have big bags, you will carry tons of gear with you, specially trinkets.

Favorite mods:
wmarker for marking targets or parts of the terrain
MSBT (it clears the clutter of all the numbers flying about all over the place)
tidyplates
raven or elkano buff bars, i always like having a separate list of all the debuffs that are applied on me, that helps me with being able to tell quickly the time fading light has left or me, or how many tetanus stacks I have on me

[fuzzygeek]

My question is, what are the one or two tips you would give at this point towards maximizing my effectiveness.

Know what happens next.

[gronc2]

thanks, that was very helpful

gronc

[Schroom]

keep an eye on the DBM timers, know before the fight, what special ability you counter with which of your abilities.

the other big tip. your healers are your best friends. talk to them, communicate with them. only than you can guarantee your survival.

[econ21]

With Dragon Soul, I think Blizzard has come quite close to its aim of getting tanks to focus more on "active mitigation": what strikes me is the importance of survival CDs and knowing when to pop them. (With earlier Cata raids, knowing about boss mechanics was more important - in DS, the fights verge on tank and spank for the tank. And tank survival seemed less of an issue before - bosses often either did not hit so hard or I outgeared them.) So, learning when in a fight to use cool downs is probably what I would recommend a new raiding tank to focus on. Stuff like rotation or gearing seems of frankly secondary importance (they're pretty simple and even if you deviate from the optimal in the details, provided you follow some basic rules of thumb you won't go far wrong thanks to the 500% threat bonus and Blizzard's nice itemisation of gear).

We have quite a battery of CDs now: AD, LoH and GoAK as majors; DP, on-use trinkets and HS as minors. I think Meloree on the Sacred Duty blog he shares with Theck has discussed them, but typically it's a process of learning by doing (or watching others do). Picking up the Mirror of Broken Images and glyphing Divine Protection might add two more big (anti-magic) CDs.

I still drop like a stone on some fights (Zono'zz or Blackthorn accumulates stacks etc) and wish I'd popped something in time. As a first step, popping stuff early and often is probably not a bad idea. Once you get used to the fights, you can fine tune it more.

[gronc2]

Thanks for that reply. How important is using my raid cool downs. I don't want to be a selfish tank, (though I understand a dead tank helps no one)

What are the thoughts on Lay on Hands? Do you usually use it as an Oh crap! for yourself, use it to help someone else or both? I find it hard to pay too much attention to health of others, I am just trying to make sure I hold aggro and stay alive.

gronc

[Limelife]

Best way to help your raid is to help yourself stay alive. Know that the boss is doing or is going to do to you. Raiding isn't like heroics where you can just tank and spank. Best thing i can tell you is to know how to rotate your cooldowns. Every boss will change that rotation. As far as LOH use it when you don't think healers can't heal you. Trust me progression on a boss there will be a point in the fight u will be at 20% HP. Because your took the time to know what a boss does to you. Now you know in 5 sec you are going to get hit for something that will kill you.. LOH. Don't be shy and tell your raid your out of cooldowns or LOH is down. This will let them know they have to use there cooldowns to keep you up. SL totem, holy pally LOH, so on.

[gronc2]

all of you are great thanks

gronc

[benebarba]

one more thing I'd add: don't look at 5-mans and LFR like easymode, look at them like a chance to practice doing stuff right with less on the line. Cooldown use, non-rotation abilities, etc. still can be very useful.