Tankadin [pre] 101 - getting to level 58 as a Tankadin.

[work in progress]

Hi all,

It has been brought to my attention, that while this community often helps end game players and those who are in the process of gearing up for end game raiding, we don't actually have any sort of guide for leveling as a Tankadin pre outland.

This is obviously something that is important as I strongly feel we need to offer help to all aspiring Tankadins out there, irrespective of level. So with hopefully the help of a few more computer literate friends, [as I have the computer skills of a newly born starfish], I have decided to have a go at writing a guide for levelling as a Tankadin. Now please bear with me and sit back and relax while I attempt to take you through the swirling yellow mists generated by countless consecrations since the beginning of time. I will initially be writing this from an alliance point of view, I have never leveled a horde Tankadin, so any information anyone can give me about leveling a horde Tankadin will be gratefully accepted and incorperated into this guide.

important note to yourself - never eat yellow ground of any type, no matter who tells you to!

I intend to split the guide up into parts, each part to cover 10 levels or so, from level 10 through to level 58 when the other guides on this forum can take over. The reason I am starting at level 10 is pretty simple, if you cannot make it to level 10 without a guide, I hate to break it to you, but WoW possibly isnt the game for you

Under each part I will list the following for your consideration,

1/ Talent Points - where to spend them wisely
2/ Gear - Nice gear and where to get it
3/ Enchants - What to use on what gear
4/ Grinding spots - where they can be found
5/ Anything else I may have forgotten [I am old after all, my memory isn't great ]

I also intend to write a small piece on profession choices, as they can really help but obviously have different priorities dependant on if you have a horde of characters, or if you are just starting your 1st character. This to me seems a sensible place to start, so on with the show!

Professions

Professions are a funny thing, if you already have existing high level characters, its entirely probable that they will lend their support to your budding Tankadin. The chances are if this is the case, that you already understand what professions are good for what classes, so I will will skip over that part and move onto what professions may aid you if the Tankadin is your first character. Please bear in mind that this advice may change as the game expands, but is pretty much current as of the 22nd May 2008. Given that the Tankadin is your 1st character, and that your steed at level 40 is going to be free, the thing to consider is this,

Do I want to make money from my profession choices so I can afford better equipment or do I want to make an informed choice now about professions that I will keep on this character for their own personal benefit? For example shall I take skinning and mining and relearn new professions at a higher level or shall I pick my professions now and stick with them?

Please also note, there is nothing wrong with picking professions based on what you would like your character to have, but I am for the purposes of this guide, going to give advice on what I feel benefits a Tankadin the most

The Money Gaining Professions - Gathering

Mining - even copper bar/ore sells for a reasonable amount on the AH irrespective of server, but does require you having find ore up on your minimap to be most effective.

Skinning - again a solid money earner that doesn't require you to have anything enabled on your minimap.

Herbalism - Not as profitable at low levels as mining or skinning, but once you reach 200 ish Herbalism skill, expect to start making money on a par with mining and skinning on the AH. Does require you having find herbs up on your minimap to be most effective.

Professions for Personal Use [can also make money]

Leatherworking - Not really the best option, the equipment you can make, while being profitable on the AH, won't help your character progression due to it being one grade under the armor you can wear, leather vs mail levels 1-40, Mail vs Plate levels 40-70. Really needs to be used with Skinning otherwise can get very expensive. Offers a low to moderate income at level 70 from BoE patterns and drums.

Blacksmithing - Very useful to ensure you always have up to date armor and weapons but sadly only really offers a few recipes for use as a Tankadin at level 70 so its long term use is questionable. Can be very expensive if not used with mining. Can make a moderate amount of gold selling items used for quest hand ins and the several blue items available at low levels. Offers a low to moderate income at level 70 dependant on pattern drops.

Jewelcrafting - Offers lots of trinkets and rings that will help out immensely with leveling. Again must be taken with mining for maximum effect. Can make a good amount of money on the AH but beware as mats at level 250 ish plus can get expensive from the AH. Offers a moderate income at level 70. Patterns are expensive at high levels!!!

Tailoring - Best used on cloth wearing classes, sure bags are great, but compared to what other professions offer to a Tankadin probably not the best choice. Doesn't need a sister profession to be most effective though. Can offer moderate income at level 70 if you get a rare pattern.

Enchanting - Very expensive to level, but the enchants available offer huge bonuses even at low levels. Has the potential to make a small amount of money from low levels. Doesn't need a sister profession. Offers good income at level 70.

Alchemy - Potions make money and save repair bills. I leveled my character with alchemy and made a lot of money on the way to 70. However this can be server dependant. Really needs to be taken with Herbalism for maximum effect. Offers good income at level 70 due to masteries but this may be server dependant.

Engineering - Bombs are Great! A fun profession, can make a small amount of gold due to quest hand ins, has some nice gadgets at low level. Should be taken with mining for maximum efficiency. Offers good items at level 70 but minimum income as most of the items are BoP.

So let us consider what to take, if you are looking just to make money, I don't think you can go far wrong with either skinning/mining or skinning/herbalism.

If you want something to benefit your character equipment wise, I personally would suggest Alchemy/Herbalism or Mining/Jewelcrafting or Mining/Engineering or Enchanting/either Mining/Skinning/Herbalism to help pay for the mats

It is down to personal choice, all of the above in bold are good choices in my opinion. Ok lets get onto levels 10 - 20, your professions ideally will be chosen by now as its easiest to level them up as you level. Please note, if this is your first character you REALLY want to ensure you level Fishing, Cooking and First Aid as you level, if you don't it becomes a chore to do so at a later date!

Levels 10 - 20

Talents - At level 10 you recieve your first talent point, knowing where to put it is a huge decision that even the best players get wrong, so don't worry if it doesn't go according to plan, its my aim to help you assign each point correctly. Our aim is to get the 41 point talent in the protection tree as quick as we can, some will disagree with this, but I strongly feel that our ranged pull is something that makes it a lot easier for a new Tankadin to be effective.

First 5 Talent Points should be put into Redoubt. This will greatly increase your blocking when fighting multiple mobs, as more things hitting you give you a better chance of it activating.

Second 5 Talent Points should be put in Toughness, this will increase the amount of armor you have, and it scales so as you get better armor your bonus armor also increases. More armor means less damage, this at levels 1-58 is a good thing. Do NOT get confused and think Improved Devotion Aura will help here, you simply will not have the Talent Points spare to get this Talent.

[under advisement regarding talent points]

Gear for levels 10-20

Anything with Stamina on is a huge bonus, do not expect to find items with defensive stats on them, ie +def rating, dodge, parry or block, if you do its a bonus! I will link World Drop items, Instance Drops and Quest Rewards that are useful.

Armor

Feet -Silver Linked Footguards World Drop.
Waist - Stormbringer Belt World Drop.
Hands - Thorbia's Gauntlets World Drop.












[to be continued]
_________________


'Don't mind Guillex, he thinks he's Dorvan' - Lore at his best March 2008.

http://armorylite.com/eu/Aerie+Peak/Barathorn

Nice idea, but wouldn't this belong in the basic training thread?

Just my 2 cents here.
_________________

Dalson's Tear in WPL = win for aoe grinding 50-56
_________________
whatisboom.com - Goblin Engineering going horribly wrong.

http://armorylite.com/us/kael%27thas/korialstraz

Although it's my 3rd 70 and 8th character overall, leveling my tankadin was recent enough that I can recall the following:

Basic Stuff:
- I found alchemy while leveling to be invaluable. I collected more than enough herbs to keep exlirs and health/mana pots handy at all times, and saved myself many potential deaths that way.
- Keep First Aid maxed. Learn the art of bubble & bandage. If you level with a friend, BoP the friend before you bubble yourself, unless you plan to rez the friend after the fight.
- Put a shield spike on every shield you wear.

Horde-only Stuff:
- Stay in Ghostlands until you're exalted with Tranquillen. The rep rewards are awesome and will last you a good long time.
- Complete your lvl 20 class quest. Yes, it requires visits to RFC, BFD, and SFK, and killing some pretty annoying elites in the ghostlands. On the flip side, it rewards a polearm that you'll also be using for a good long time. This brings me to..

More general stuff:
- Switch to your polearm once in a while, especially when you only have 1 or 2 mobs to fight. Keeping your 1h and 2h skills roughly even while leveling will save you a lot of grief later on. There are reasons to use each, and you should get used to switching weapons mid-fight.

If I think of more I'll tack it on.
_________________

first off, while i leveled my tankadin as prot, it really isnt that efficient until you reach level 30-35, simply because of talents and such. i guess theres no downside to starting out as prot, but like all classes, spec doesnt make a huge difference until later anyways, and while im tempted to say just get +str gear and a 2hander, its up to the individual.

prot leveling is all about mitigation and reflective damage, while basically staying at full hp/mana from procs. typically you can take an average of 4-5 mobs at once, pending your gear, but for example, i did a lot of elemental grinding in badlands, and with my gear (pretty solid), i could take packs of 5 non stop as i made circuits around the camps. buffs are ret aura, righteous fury (talented), blessing of sanctuary, the best shield spike you can get for your shield, and the best 1h you can get, preferably enchanted with fiery/lifestealing/crusader pending your budget. i typically had a rotation of judging light/sealing wisdom, then tabbing and judging wisdom and sealing light. i found this was the best way to keep levels of hp and mana consistent. i tended not to spam consecrate, as the mana loss was substantial and my top 1handers did enough damage. wait for redoubt before using holy shield to maximize the charge use, and thats basically it, mobs will kill themselves half the time.

as far as areas for leveling, here are some good areas i used:

level 35: murlocs in dustwallow marsh, lots of mob camps, relatively quick respawn, almost all melee

level 40: rock elementals in badlands, all physical damage, multiple camps (ranging from lvl 40 to upper 40s)

level 45: pirates in tanaris, some shoot guns, but if you body pull and dont run away immediately, they melee and run after you, just have to be careful of runners chain pulling

upper 40s: ogres in the south of tanaris (watch out for the occasional caster), the elemental thistleshrubs by the entrace to ungoro

level 50-60: wpl - sorrow hill, felstone field, scarlet mobs in the north (for upper 50s). alternatively, i think you can still do dire maul lashers, no more ridiculous cash, but still good xp.

my tankadin alt is only level 62, and ive just been tanking instances, so i dont know much about aoe grinding in outland, might be more problematic with the abundance of caster mobs scattered. that, and instancing is just great xp/items/rep, especially if rested.

notable items: electrocutioners leg (sword from gnomer), thermaplugs shield (gnomer, has reflective dmg), sword of omen (horde), sword of serenity (all), vanquishers sword (rfd quest), aegis of the scarlet commander, one of the zf 1h swords (jang thraze and i forget the name of the other), hand of antusul (slow mace from zf, but nice proc), thrash blade (slow but fun proc), flurry axe (expensive epic but perfect for the task at hand), gizlocks buckler (mara), crest of supremacy (sunken temp), aegis of stormwind (world blue boe), any of the 1handers from sunken temple (the npc next to jammalan the prophet, drops 1h axe/mace/sword), mace from mara (landslide, proc is 50 mana on hit), shield from brd (rock elemental boss behind arena, easily farmable with a group), nagelring (reflective damage, engineer boss in brd), force of will (same boss in brd, nice tanking trinket). as for armor, sm mail is a good staple for a while (even past 40), ie herods shoulder, raging berserkers helm, scarlet leggings. uldaman has reveloshs boots ("of the bear" is the best), as well as the plate gloves (also go for "of the bear"), both lvl 40 req. zf has cragfists (very similar to the ones from ulda, but lvl 42). rfd has a nice plate chest and helm (carapace of anubshiah or something and icemetal barbute), also level 40, mara has some nice plate gear (plate helm from landslide, elemental rockridge leggings from princess). brd has a lot of armor upgrades, plate chest from the spider in arena, gloves from phalanx, lava something legs from the molten giant that no one ever bothers killing. when you get to low 50s, pick up lightorge/valor belt and bracers, set bonus of 200 armor is very nice. past brd, the instances have the typical loot (class sets and such), but most are higher level req, and at that point (around level 57-5 you can start picking up the "new" outland greens, which have stats that rock old gear ("of the beast" and "of the champion" for the most part). LBRS has a few pieces of nice gear, i remember getting the gloves backusarian gauntlets from one of th early named npcs, level 55ish req.

so yea, you can tell im really bored at work, but this is all from memory, theres probably lots more people can add. hope this helps.

Thanks matey, that really helps I'll incorperate it as and when I get more time. It is a work in progress.

Barathorn
_________________


'Don't mind Guillex, he thinks he's Dorvan' - Lore at his best March 2008.

http://armorylite.com/eu/Aerie+Peak/Barathorn

I seem to recall http://aoepaladin.blogspot.com/ having some decent spots to grind, as well as videos of How To Do It and noteable Handy Gear to Get. I wasn't always happy with their information's depth, but at the same time, I wasn't really grinding much.

You might consider the xp/hour difference of straight questing (e.g., Jame's Guide) versus AOE grinding (with and without rested bonus?). I never felt like I was making good progress while trying to aoe tank things down, but perhaps I just wasn't dedicated enough.

... I realize that's not quite in the spirit of the guide, but I think it's handy to help show what the comparison is, so that people can decide whether they want to level this way or not. (The counterargument is that people reading this already HAVE made that decision.)

edit: Especially before level 30, going 2H dps style can work VERY well, esp for Alliance paladins -- Verigan's Fist is stupidly overpowered at that level. I still recall "healing" blackrock depths while DPSing with that thing, hehe. Same if you happen to pick up a Corpsemaker. We don't really have useful tanking talents (for leveling purposes, that is, as we can still Tank Stuff) until we can get BoSanctuary or Holy Shield. I'd imagine that you'd be able to tank as holy or ret very similarly well before level 30.

This is a great idea for a guide. I suspect it's more of a basic training topic, but we can sort this out once it's done.

The gear aspect is probably pretty simple: wear "of the bear" or "of the eagle" plate. Then add "wear blue plate that looks like it should be 'of the bear" or 'of the eagle'". Add a couple weapon quests (like the SM one and Thrash Blade) and ta da .
_________________

xp/hour in terms of questing is hard to quantify since different places will require different travel times/quest objectives, so youd have to factor in some sort of optimal route for every quest to truly maximize your xp/hour. the benefit of aoe tanking is that you dont have to run around zones, only really returning to a city to vendor trash/repair/train skills. the gold you get is amazing (elementals in badlands drop good vendor trash, humanoids with cloth, ie pirates in tanaris = loads of mageweave), and you dont have to grind with the monotonous seal of command + autoattack afk.

granted, just like grinding anything, aoe tanking is repetitive. but its more engaging than ret grinding, and lets you annoy any physical damage class that tries to gank you. and from my experience, the xp is pretty good, not sure about exact numbers, but at the very least its decent in terms of leveling with time efficiency. and rested xp makes the level/hour pretty ridiculous.

@eanin: i wouldnt bother with "of the eagle" gear, i was prot since 35, and iirc, had no int/sd on my gear, and never had problems. even at 62, i tank ramparts/bf/ub/sp with maybe 2-3 pieces of gear with int/sd, and have no issues holding aggro/managing mana/staying alive.

very true, especially with the xp boost from quests a few patches back. i guess i just got bored of running everywhere, and it was a nice change of pace in leveling, hence why i looked into it. that, and because ret is so gear dependent, i preferred not having to eat/drink, apart from the occasional pull when runners made things go bad.