New to heroics - my experiences

I have been browsing this forum quite a bit and have read through a lot of the comments with regards to heroics. I have also recently made uncrittable, and am now tanking heroics. I thought that I would share my experiences as a freshly minted heroic tank. So here is a list of food for thought.

1) For an undergeared pally tank, heroics can be very difficult.

2) Bring CC, lots of CC. I generally take at least one rogue/mage and preferably two to heroics with me. Warlocks are great in certain situations because banish is the greatest CC ever.

3) Choose a good healer. Find someone who knows what the heck they're doing or you will die a lot.

4) The most common times for wipes are on the first few trash pulls. Don't be discouraged, you're using these few pulls to learn how much you can take on in whichever instance you're doing.

5) Know the boss fights beforehand. Learn them in normal - that's what it's there for. Knowing the bosses generally will make doing them cake.

6) Don't start with Slave Pens unless you bring at least 2 CC, preferably 3. Slave Pens has some of the hardest trash in the game and you need to be able to have at least 3 or 4 heroic mobs whacking you at once. Much more managable is Heroic Ramps. Your DPS and healer will know this instance generally a lot better than any of the coilfang instances and the only real hard pulls are succeptible to good CC.

7) Slow and steady is the trick. I knew I was ready for heroics when I not only hit 490 defense (which is generally a very good indication that you're ready) but also when I tanked Slabbs and it was cake.

Don't get discouraged if you wipe the group a few times. Find people who aren't going to be too harsh on you. I caused my GM 60G repair bills the first time I did a heroic. Well, I didn't cause it all - he'd managed to kill himself before the first pull. Damned suicidal rogues .

9) Have fun, it's a game and you're playing to enjoy yourself. If you aren't having fun then you're doing something wrong (i.e. find another hobby).

10) Aim to forget all of this information and become one of those "heroics are so simple" pally tanks as soon as humanly possible =)

gratz on beeing able to run heroics

even tho, one point of yours is very missleading.

*490 Defence does NOT make you ready for Heroics.
490 defence is easy reachable with 100% green items, without a single enchant. when I first got 490 defence I had like 8.9k HP or something like that. Trying to do a Heroic with that low HP will not be fun. I did say its very close to impossible (low HP combined with green items = low armor = low mitigation/avoidance) a lot of mobs will kill you in 2-3 hits
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this is actually really useful, thanks.

I'm afraid i fell victim to being discouraged by #6, i tried to join a HSP group, and they had no CC and i got owned in the first pull, and felt that im not ready for heroics, despite having decent gear (504 def and 12k health unbuffed)

With this in mind, ill try to tank another heroic, hopefully with a mage and lock or something like that

"Find people who aren't going to be too harsh on you."

Having been starting a few heroics myself recently, this is possible the hardest thing to those of us who are forced to mainly run in PUGs.

My wife plays a healer, so that's no problem.. but, even in normal and especially in Heroic instances I keep bumping into geared (normally PvP geared) DPS classes who are used to epiced out Tanks and Healers.

Heroic, at least on my server, has become "normal"... and people are adjusted to running these instances with people who over gear them. Don't let these people's judgments on you dissuade you from trying, they need to remember that everyone needs to start somewhere.
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[url=http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Khaz'goroth&n=Laikar][/url]

The one thing that's made heroics a little MORE difficult, IMHO, is the fact that they lowered the requirement from revered to honored.

So now, instead of having people who've been working on grinding the rep, learning the instances, and getting better blues (at least), you have a bunch of scrub 70s who think they can take on the world, don't know what they're doing, and generally make shit worse.

And that, my friends, is just another indication of Blizzard being controlled by a 12 year old.
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Official thread killer

[quote="Mishdorf"]
6) Don't start with Slave Pens unless you bring at least 2 CC, preferably 3. Slave Pens has some of the hardest trash in the game and you need to be able to have at least 3 or 4 heroic mobs whacking you at once. Much more managable is Heroic Ramps. Your DPS and healer will know this instance generally a lot better than any of the coilfang instances and the only real hard pulls are succeptible to good CC.
quote]

I'd really disagree with this. There are tons of mobs in Ramps that do unfun nasty stuns/knockbacks that can make your life pure hell and several also have a Mortal Strike that will eat you for lunch if your healer is even slightly asleep behind the wheel.

You can skip something like 9-10 pulls in SP and easily make this run much faster. For the large groups after the big overgrown lobster boss, pull way back and have someone fear if you have crappy other CC options.
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"Tanks need many stats, including No-blink crotch staring resistance" - Snake-Aes

I hate hate hate, absolutely hate that jump. Did I say I hate that jump?


It's not much faster than just going forward, jump into pool, hop on ledge, pull the 3 mob pat, go around corner (quest guy if needed), go down hall, 2 mob pull, go by little mound of dirt, pull the 5 mob pull, get boss, move on.

Edit x 4: learn2preview nub
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