Warrior: Tanking on the PTR

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post.  Well recently I've been on the PTR testing out all the new abilites and talent setups, and i have to say... Goddamn.  Blizzard really outdid themselves.  The new talents are spot on, and are alot more fun.  Everything does something, and pretty much all passive talents are a thing of the past.  Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots for you right now.

I do have some major qualms though.

1. Glyphs are hard to come by. So it's very hard to test true game balance.
2. For whatever reason, warrior prot damage has been scaled back hard. which in turn affects...
3. Threat generation is a joke.  I can hardly hold threat anymore.  Even using Taunt is spotty at best.

But from what I understand, these are all known issues and they're being worked on, especially the threat generation issue.  I'll keep everyone posted with more updates!

Paladin: Gearing a new tank at 80

I already have two piece of T9, a ring, and a libram just from badges alone. The hard part is getting decent armor.  And even harder than that is finding yourself a decent tanking weapon.  There are all kinds of things out there on the internetz that can help you.  For me, I'm using two guides throwing together this guide from Tank Like A Girl, and the now well-known Polar's Easy Pre-Naxx Tank Gear List.

Death Knight: First Impressions

Death Knight tanking is totally, totally different than warrior tanking. There are far less buttons to hit, for one, and all 3 talent trees have different strengths and weaknesses.  But for the sake of clarity and because the Blood tree is becoming the dedicated tanking tree come Cataclysm, all of my post about my DK will be from the point of view of a Blood tank.

AoE tanking, is much much much easier for a DK, in any spec that is played (notably easier for Unholy tanks, but you don't see too many of them around).  An AoE rotation is very simple Death and Decay, get your diseases up, pestilence, and if you're in a pinch for some snap threat, Rune Tap then Blood Boil.  Then, you wait.  A long time.  There seems to be alot of "do nothing" time as a DK tank waiting on the runes to regen.  Now from my understanding, Blizz is changing how runes regenerate in Cataclysm.  I'm not in the beta, so we'll see how that works out when it's released.  DK's also seem to be pretty restricted by the GCD.  I've had a few good DPS pull aggro off me before my diseases are even up, simply because i'm restricted by the GCD.

Another note, Blood tanking is -excellent- for single target boss tanking.  In terms of threat generation, Heart Strike is probably the best threat generation attack out of all 3 trees.  But, since it is pure physical damage, an armor reducing debuff from a fellow raider is desirable.  The blood tree also is also full of delicious talents that contribute to effective health, which seems to be the end-all for raiding.

Warrior: First Impressions

I've been a warrior for 4 years now. But I've never really tanked extensively. Other than some slight arms tanking back in vanilla and some heroics in BC, i've never really much had a taste for tanking. But for some reason, with the onset of Wrath, I find tanking alot more fun. It is to my understanding, Blizzard strived to make the tanking experience more dynamic and fun.

My first impressions on warrior tanking: After running OS, Naxx, Ulduar, VoA, and every damn heroic in the game, I've discovered that warriors, as most of you probably already know, have a hard time with AoE tanking. Thunder Clap helps, as does the cleave glyph. When tanking with the cleave glyph against 4 or more mobs, it's important to make sure you switch between both sides of the pack so your cleave can hit everyone.

AoE tanking seems to be more of a priority system for warriors. Thunder Clap=>queue Cleave and keep it queued=>tab Cleave=>Revenge