First real tanking experience

I've got a level 60 pally (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Thrall&n=Popomatic) who I've just started in outland at this level as opposed to 58. This was an alt, but I've been enjoying him so much I think this will be my main. I tanked blood furnace for my first time ever in the instance. It went ok at best. My only other tanking experience was ZF which was easy.

I think I just need more experience, but I had a hard time keeping track of everything, and I'm sure it would help if I knew the instance. I had an enhancement shammie, a hunter pet, and a felguard up with me in melee. The shammie would pull aggro from me quite often and a couple times the healer. Slavation was on all the dps. When things went well it all seemed fairly straight forward, but when I lost aggro or something else goofy, I panicked and felt like I couldnt recover. I also had a hard time trying to keep track of everything.

I decided I definitely need the RD macro, because I was having a hard time clicking on the person who pulled aggro from me. I was also so focused on what I was doing (read: stressed) that I couldn't tell what was my fault and what was someone else's.

Also, right before you get to the last boss there are those felguards with a summoner. The seemed to randomly charge someone else in the party and I couldn't reliably get them back under control. What do you do in that situation??

Long story (sorry) short, my question is: does it get better with experience? I think I made the run a lot harder than it had to be for the others. Will better gear make it that much easier? And finally are there any instances that are better for learning than others?

First of all, L60 tanking BF is a bit of a stretch, especially for a new tank. Thats a L61-63 instance. Stick to Ramparts till you're 61/62, imo.

But to begin with the last, first, those felguards are a special case. They're Arms warriors, they'll randomly charge and knockdown a member of the group. The key is to have a sufficient agro lead that when they do that, after they've completed their attack, they run back to you and continue meleeing.

As for holding agro: get Omen. Group with people who use Omen. Tell those that you group with that don't have it to get it. Nothing will help you understand how you lost agro on something as much as keeping an eye on omen will.

Also, get more SD. It's our main threat attribute, even at lower levels. 25 SD is not enough to tank a L62ish instance.

It's an unrelated thing to anything you mentioned, but you need the Anticipation talent at 5/5. There's no reason for you not to. My reccommendation would be to remove 3 points from reckoning, and 2 points from 1-h spec. You loose a bit of threat, but you gain a whole lot of survivability.

If you're not already, ask for leadership of any group you're in so you can mark targets. Keep up your steady skill rotation on the primary target at all times, only using aoe stuff for the rest. If someone pulls agro on a mob that isnt marked for dps, its their fault. If they pull agro from something that you're actively hitting, the issue is probably on your end.

To give you any more specific info, would need to know some more about how you're tanking. What are you doing on any given pull, and whats your skill rotation like?

In all fairness there wasn't much spelldamage to be had at level 60. If you've done all the hellfire quests and gotten the spell damage gear from there you should be set.

Run ramps a couple more times to get the hang of tanking and rotations, then go back to blood furnace around 61/62. There is a spell damage mace that drops in there that will last you quite awhile, and there is also a nice libram in there that I never got my hands on. Good luck!
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Thing is if you're using daggers in both hands and Sinister Strike isn't recommended then how would you build combo points?

Great replies thank you!

Ivohnix thanks for those macros I will be using those asap. How do you know what level of consecrate to use? Do you just kind of need to get a feel for it?

I was running omen, but i think it was just me and the healer since I only saw our two bars. I should have used that check function before we went.

I'll stick to ramparts for a couple levels then. I was just asked to tank so I figured I'd try it.

Also keybind RD.

I have it bound with clique to my middle mouse button. I mid click any target icon and it's RD''d. Many people put it into mouseover macros. Do one or both.

INSIST on pulling, do it with Avenger's Shield, and tell the DPS to stay out until the mobs are inside your first consecrate.

LoS pulling can be used not just to move a mob, but to force melee DPS to run to the spot you pull to or suffer getting aggro. Of course you won't need this trick with good DPS, and bad DPS will consistently break your pull by stopping the mob on it's way to the LoS pull-to spot.

On the other hand, its a very good way to judge where to lay the blame. LoS pull several times and if they keep running in and breaking it before it reaches you, its their fault. If you lose aggro repeatedly after it reaches where you're pulling to, there's something you need to correct.
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Just a little follow up.

Tanked Ramparts and Blood Furnace a ton this weekend, all with good success. Its getting a lot better very quickly. Thanks for all the help.

Though I still have a hard time with the last fellguards in BF. I cant get them to come back to me after charging the party.

The key is to over-agro on them. DPS won't stop dps'ing them when they run away from you, in fact most dps will burst dps when they do this, no matter how much you ask them not to, so you've got to stack enough threat on them so that the DPS can't out threat you in the time it takes the mob to come back.

Actually I think the Felguard charge in regular mode might be an aggro wipe because I remember having issues with it way back when.

Have your group clump up real close to the felguard and he won't charge, thus no issues

-edit

And if you feel like saving those PUGs that don't listen, I imagine saving Excorcism for the charge should be able to pick them right back up, and if not you always have Rightous defense.
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I had the same problem with the Felguards - especially when there were two of them.

Sooo, I pulled them way up into the room where the little imps were, turned one about halfway up the hallway, and told everyone to stand in my consecrate. Other than the healer no one was to do anything until they saw the second consecrate go down. This made sure I had two exorcisms on the target too. Hunter needed to be at the edge of consecrate and did sometimes get charged (he was often behind me, so I couldn't see just how far) but since the MOB was never out of my consecrate he came back.

When people listened, it worked like a champ. When they didn't sometimes I had to rez them. ^^
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