What did I do wrong?

As a low level tank, where nearly everyone (including you!) is DPS spec, you're going to need to do a couple things:

- Use retribution aura. Get thorns too if you can. Almost nothing hits hard enough to need Devotion, and the extra threat is good.
- ALWAYS PULL FIRST, unless you somehow have a good hunter, but even then, pull first. {edit: others said this before I could. It's still true. }
- Make sure your DPS knows to give you a few seconds. They might not realize this.

If someone else pulls, and you taunt from them, you have an aggro lead on everyone EXCEPT that person. If you pull, judge+seal of righteousness the kill target, and drop a consecrate, though, that's a healthy threat lead over many others. (The exception is a hunter, once they can FD. They pull, you taunt, they FD, you get the aggro they dealt. Only rarely does it fail. )

If someone else pulls, you no longer are controlling the pace, and it seems like you will quite often be wishing you had a shorter taunt cooldown. It's a recipe for annoyance. Ask your groupmates to let you set the pulling pace, and to do the pulls. (Also, downranking to r1 consecrate after the first one can help you save some mana.)


edit:
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As a hunter main (better-geared-alt?), I can understand the flip side -- we have some great pullign abilities. But, there's a huge advantage to having all of the initial threat on the tank, especially in a pug. This means that your mage needs to sheep AFTER you pull, priests shackle AFTER the pull, etc. In SFK, for example, you can pull with JoR+SoR (or exorcism? when do you get that?), and then as things are coming towards you people can shackle or peel things off for an ice trap. I'd wait on consecrate until you can get things away from the CC'ed mobs, though.

Yeah, if anyone tells you to use Devotion Aura, /slap them and remind them who's on the keyboard of the tank. You don't need it, and they only need the armor boost if you suck. Now... why would you want to play a style that only works if you suck at holding aggro?

By Scarlet Monastery - Cathedral, if someone else pulls, I type /sleep and wait for them to die. In earlier instances I am forgiving, but by that point they need to start learning the hard way, and I just factor the repair bill I'm going to suffer by doing it into the 'cost of leveling.' I'll tell them why I'm doing it of course... and remind them to stop pulling... but if they keep pulling, I'm happy to let us keep wiping.
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That's a good point about Devotion Aura. It's all I ever use (mainly because I can't find groups normally). I'll change to Retribution for future groups.

I'm not a Blood Elf, sadly, but one of those liposuctioned version of an orc that Blizzard likes to call "Human".

I think one of the problems I am having is "confidence" (not the correct word as such). I mean almost all low level players are alts, so they know the ropes and it's kind of daunting as a new player to try and take control when you have people who, for example, have a few level 70s and insist they know better (didn't happen with that group, but it has happened). There is almost a casual arrogance in encounters which I think was displayed last night by the fact the Shaman often ran right ahead of us (while we were drinking) and starting soloing single mobs and no one would wait for a mana break.

I also explained to my group that I have nothing that will protect me from magic which is what the boss was hitting me with. I told them to keep an eye on my health but instead they just all tried to kill the boss. When we reset the instance and faced the gate keeper I got all aggro on me, and promptly died. No one even tried to heal me. There was almost a "Well, he'll buy us enough time and we'll kill them and res him" air about it. When I get to the high levels then people are going to be a little more cooperative I'd imagine, but I could do with a bit of tanking experience to get me ready.

This is coming across a bit emo, which I swear is not my intention. I'm content with everything, but I do feel like when I join a group I am almost insignificent because everyone else has been here longer. That should mean they know their roles better, but it often really means they know the encounters better and know the "fastest" way to deal with them.

I'm coming up to Stockade level at the moment (level 25). I did respec and have as I suggested earlier along with 2 points in Benediction. I'm certaintly not prepared to take a backwards step in my ambition to be a Tankadin so we'll see how it goes

One question though: If I did get silenced at the very beginning of a fight, what are my options? I figure I need to warn people, but they can't simply stop fighting or healing. Retribution Aura would be helpful if I did lose aggro but can I do anything else?

One other thing I'm not sure was mentioned...unless DPS is a rogue or some other melee DPS, they should be standing in the back. I am not a new player by any means, but as a long time rogue, I never knew that anyone out of melee range had to exceed the tanks threat by a whole 30% to steal aggro.

Since I've learned this, I've shared it w/ many PUG members, lots of them rolling their second or third alt, and you wouldn't believe the number of folks who say "wow really? I never knew that".

So, if you are grouped w/ casters, ask them to stand in the back.

Agree. A lot of these guys may know their main very well, but they don't know their alts at all...I remember a group w/ a hunter recently who had two 70's. He would NOT turn taunt off of his pet, and called it a "tank check", saying the tank should be able to hold aggro off the constant taunts...At level 24.

Needless to say, he spent a lot of money on food keeping his pet happy after dying on every other pull.

Thing about that taunt is, you will -NEVER- be able to hold aggro on it against a hunter who is withing 5-10 levels up or down of you... At least for the first second... Just like our taunt, it gives the pet a free grab for a moment, and the pet then tries to generate threat to keep it. You -CAN- thus be sure to always get the mob back, but in that mean time, your not generating threat on that mob and everyone else is...

Which means that you risk further complications.

/boot that huntard.

Here's my recommendation for pickup groups in the 20-69 range:

Make a macro that says the following to group chat: "Pulling, Don't attack until I pee, kill skull first"

Calling consecration 'pee' helps lighten the mood, and it is a lot easier to type without misspelling. Always mark a target with skull so the DPS can go nuts on it. If someone gets aggro on skull, who cares it's going to die. You can hold aggro on the others. By the time skull is dead, you'll have an aggro lead on the others.

Do that group tell macro on the first couple pulls. If the group is cooperating with you, then feel free to stop doing it. If people aren't listening continue to do that before each pull and yell at 'em after until they start listening. Offer to leave the group if they can't hold off DPSing for 5 seconds.

It really helps if you build a friends list of good healers. In a 5-man group the healer and tank are the hardest to get, and for 90% of the 5-man fights what they do makes or breaks the encounter. If both the tank and healer tell the dps the same story, then people start to get in line.

As you get higher level the 5-man content gets harder and people start messing around less. Pretty much after Scarlet Monastery people had a big turn around in attitude for me. They were just glad to get a group and were willing to listen.

Good idea on those macros. I'll have to do that. I also need to figure out what keys to use for assigning marks. All my keys seem to be in use

The slightly annoying thing is you need group leadership to make marks I thinks so I am going to have to ask nicely for that if I am not the leader.

A while back on these forums I suggested this macro before pulls:

I'll check that add-on out. I will also create some macros. I do have one at the moment: