Soon (as in this week) I'll have my second 70, Nakveigh. I'll be respecing to Prot pretty soon. I want to tank with him, but am having some difficulty finding the information I'm looking for.

I can find gear lists with no problem. Need stat theory and why +2 of something is better then +5 of something else... got it. What I'm looking for is a skill rotation list. I have specific rotations I use now, but it is only using Battle and Berserker stance skills. I've only switched into Defensive stance a handful of times.

There are three different rotations I'm looking for info on.

1- Instance tanking single mob
2- Instance tanking multi mob
3- Solo (dps) quest grinding

I'm also assuming that using Demo and Commanding shout is the way to go, but if there is another suggestion I'll gladly listen.

I'm vaguely remembering something with the multi mob pulls being Pull X > Shield Block > Revenge > Switch to Skull > Devistate... so on and so forth. But I may be remembering incorrectly, that's why I'm asking.

http://www.theoryspot.com/forums/tankspot/

Almost everything you could ever want is right there.

Another question would be on getting aggro back from a crit happy dps'er. If taunt fails, what do I fall back on? Challenging Shout, Mocking Blow, something else?

http://www.theoryspot.com/forums/tankspot/

Almost everything you could ever want is right there.

I've been spending time at tankspot.com, but didn't find skill rotation stuff. Maybe I overlooked it, or was looking in the wrong sections. I'll keep searching there.

Another question would be on getting aggro back from a crit happy dps'er. If taunt fails, what do I fall back on? Challenging Shout, Mocking Blow, something else?

If taunt fails, you're stuck below that person's threat until you can overcome it or taunt comes out of cooldown. You can switch to battle stance and do a mocking blow - that'll get you six seconds of the mob looking at you, but may blow a lot of your rage. Challenging shout also works if it's vital to get the mob looking at you, but that's a long cooldown. Another alternative is to stun the mob (concussion blow) which will at least ensure it's not beating on the DPSer, and it has the bonus of not blowing a long cooldown or losing a lot of rage. If that's not up or it misses, and the mob is melee, you can try disarming it to cut down its damage.

However it's done, if your taunt isn't up you'll have to spam some high threat moves to get agro back. If the DPSer is bright, they'll back off and let you. If not, they're welcome to tank it 'til it's dead or they are.

I have been able to find some info on rotations. The suggestion seems to be...

Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate x 2 > Wash hands > Wipe on pants > Repeat
Heroic Strike as rage dump (40+)

Is the standard rotation really just those three (well, four) moves over and over?

One thing that I'm not sure your tanking guides tell you is that sometimes you just have to let the DPS eat it. It's the job of DPS to let you keep aggro. If they keep stealing aggro, then maybe they just need to die to get the lesson (I haven't, in memory, knowingly let a VS DPSer die in such a situation -- but it's not always anything I can do something about).

I've been on both sides of this. A string of early crits while I'm on DPS and all of the sudden I have the mob. I'll try and back off, but if I die, it's my fault. As long as this doesn't cause a wipe, I'm the only one that suffered (and I'll generally speak up and apologize, too) and I don't get upset about it. All VS DPSers should feel the same. Right? :)

You have experience as DPS which gives you a 'both sides of the coin' view. If someone pulls aggro off you, you know what to tell them to do ("hey Fox, could you vanish?" :) ). Use that experience to help your tanking.

Also keep in mind that there are non-boss mobs that are immune to taunt (and some bosses that aren't immune).

I have been able to find some info on rotations. The suggestion seems to be...

Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate x 2 > Wash hands > Wipe on pants > Repeat
Heroic Strike as rage dump (40+)

Is the standard rotation really just those three (well, four) moves over and over?

Yes...

I remember finding some info on tanking sequences at WowWiki.com. Don't know if you've already seen this page, but it may help ==> Warriors as Tanks. It also lists a sequence to use for multiple mob pulls.

To go with what Beam said...

Before I got too much into being a Druid, I was reasonably sure that I was helping by offtanking a caster myself in instance runs. I don't make that mistake anymore and I try not to let the dpsers I run PUGs with do the same.

Lately I've gotten into the habit of running some later instances with no CC. (Such as Normal Shattered Halls and Shadow Lab) The only way this will work for a druid tank... and most likely for a warrior as well is if the folling things happen.

1. The DPS gives you a headstart before charging in and racing to the top of the meter.

2. Everything is attacking the tank.... EVERYTHING.

If one mob is hitting someone else then the healer has to heal them too and then all of a sudden EVERYTHING is on the healer except the skull.

I have not been afraid to let DPSers die at the beginning to learn this lesson. It's easier to fight a group with one less DPSer than one less healer.

That rogue/fury warrior/ret pali in your group is not an offtank no matter what he says. And because he's hitting the caster on the left and not the skull, the skull is still alive and your healer is running out of mana.

(The preceding applies to PUGs as VS DPSers rarely need to be informed of these tricks... and when they do need to be informed, they listen before the need to let them die arises)

Also Hunters can misdirect on you to help with the threat :D

The 'two Sunders' rule is generally pretty good if you got people in your group that know what is going on. When I 3box I am using my warrior as an offtank and controlling the hunter, who's pet is the main tank. The warrior is usually in battle stance so I guess it is a little different, but what I do is charge in and sunder the hell out of the target.

That keeps the mob on him through all the multishots and heals that are flying past yet still lets my hunter pet pick up agro if needed with a taunt and a little dps.

In a group situation, a couple of sunders and just auto attack will do wonders. With situations when you are pulling as a tank it can get even easier. With my druid what I did was pull the X which causes the skull to also run at me, CC goes off, I smack the skull and get it focused on me and then tank the X for a bit before switching back and forth.

I suppose one other question I have would be just how much of a bitch is it to quest while spec'd for prot? I just started Blades Edge and have not touched Netherstorm or Shadowmoon. I have a lot of questing left to do.

Should I stay Fury until I'm all done questing? Or should I go tank at 70 and put up with the slower questing.

You can do decent though definitely not superior DPS while dual wielding with DPS gear. (I haven't tried two-handed weapons lately, but that's mainly due to a couple of good one-handers.)

Cord was protection specced until aboot two weeks ago and questing was a no-brainer, howbeit a bit slower. If you are determined to be a tank; I say go for it now and get used to all of your stuns.

Healer's two cents:

As a healer, first priority goes to keeping the tank alive: "Tank death=instant healer death"

So, if a DSPer pulls the aggro off of the tank, he will get a heal and a refresh or maybe even a shield, but if he doesn't lose the aggro fast, I let him die (that usually causes him to lose the aggro--its sort of like feign death, only not feigning).

This isn't, of course to be rude, its simply that its the only way to assure the success of the rest of the group on that particular pull (nothing personal, Slow...)

I think that I have developed a keen fondness for this thread. /hug thread

In my opinion, one of the hardest things to learn as a tank or a healer (I'm assuming, here) is that you do have to let people die from time to time. Sometimes it's not even anyone's fault, sometimes shit happens. But your responsibility is the success of the group, not of keeping everyone alive, all the time.

As a hunter, I know I should not be pulling aggro. And if I do pull aggro, I expect to die. Period. If the healer does throw me a heal, my inside voice goes, "Aw... that was sweet of him/her to throw me a heal even though I pulled aggro." So go ahead and let me die.

But remember, once Lushy gets up there in levels, it will be my turn to let all you troublesome DPSers die. Mwahahahaha!

Sometimes I'm forced to sit back and wonder if I spent as much time doing additional projects at work as I spend on WoW related stuff... what could I get done? Fortunately, I don't care.

Attached to this post is a TXT of tank gear lists. It would be a PDF, but the file size limit on those is 19.5kb!?!?! I ripped (and reformatted) this directly from Berg's Tank Gear Rankings on tankspot.com. I did all this reformatting so it was more streamlined and easy to read / print.

I removed all items that are T5 or T6, items that are crafter specific (unless it's blacksmith), and anything Scryer specifc (as I'm Aldor). Sorry if this cuts out gear you could get... but it's my list and the items reflect such. :p

If you have any comments on this, let me know.

I'd actually recommend tanking the 69-70 instances (slabs, et al.) in your current spec until you hit 70 to get a feel for it, if you're not doing that already. Then, when you go prot, you'll already more or less know what you're doing. That will make it a bit easier to start incorporating the new prot skills when you re-spec. Another thing is to get a feel for the range at which you can use intervene. It's such an awesome skill and can sometimes save a wipe or at least a dead healer/dps. For starting out, check AH for any 67-70 "of the champion" or "of stamina" gear to use until you can replace them with blues. There's a few (possibly a whole set, not sure) blues that hit AH on occasion that have those name extensions that are pretty solid, also. I think they're all called Slatesteel.

I've been told by others to tank while fury speced, just to get the feel for it. I may try that.

The question then becomes, what does the threat generation cycle change to if I don't have Shield Slam and Devastate?

Opening Sequence
Bloodrage > Commanding Shout > Pull > Sunder > Shield Block > Revenge > Sunder x 4

Repeated Sequence
Thunderclap or Demo Shout (depending on CC) > Sunder > Shield Block > Revenge > Sunder x 2

You shouldn't need to use comm shout or shield block for reg instances. Maybe on bosses. Just use those when you have an excess of rage or after a fight. Sunder and HS will be your main threat skills as far as stuff you'll still have when you go prot. Improved HS will help; I can't remember if you have it or not. For single targets keep 5 sunders up at all times, refreshing when needed. Use HS, shield bash, thunderclap, revenge and Bloodthirst (tactical mastery increases the threat gain from this skill while in defensive stance. It basically will replace shield slam.). You don't necessarily need a set rotation. I don't really use one. I spam devastate, HS and use revenge and shield slam when they're up. Be careful with TC, as it is the primary CC-breaker for a warrior tank, but always keep it up on a boss. Shield reflect can sometimes get you initial threat on casters that don't like to run to you, just make sure they're targeting you and not the healer. The reason you don't want to start off with Comm Shout is because it will drain all your initial rage. That's bad. Opening with bloodthirst is good if you have the rage. I'm not sure what the rage cost on that is. I was actually arms when I first started tanking, but fury should be similar. I think bloodthirst has a lower rage cost than MS, but I don't remember. Either way, your problem could be rage generation, since you don't have any points spent to lower the rage cost on anything. It might balance out with your other skills and not having as much avoidance, I dunno. Anyways, if you learn to tank that way, you'll feel like you have a neverending flow of rage once you get into a solid tanking spec. Wow, that ended up being long. I should really learn to break stuff up into paragraphs.

I, for one, blame only myself if I die by pulling aggro... heals and shields are a wonderful bonus, and greatly appreciated....