Loading ...Happy Birthday to TankingTips.com ~ 1 Year Old
A year ago today an unknown site called TankingTips.com started. It’s purpose wasn’t anything particularly special or significant. It was made simply because the information I had wrote on forums got lost for the 2nd time after I left my 2nd guild ever. It’s here as my guide and you may be surprised to learn that it’s hard for me to follow the advice here sometimes too. Walking the talk so to speak.
Over 100 posts, 2000 comments and an uncountable number of questions submitted later and a year’s behind us. The site has become so much more than just a single tank’s look at tanking, but instead it’s become a tanking community’s look at tanking. It’s not lost on me how many times I write a post and half the comments are longer than my actual post. The amount of insight, understanding and more to the point rational, logical, mature discussion that has taken place on this site is frankly astonishing even when looking at it from the driver’s seat.
A year later, I’ve learned…
- Macros help, a lot.
- After specing into it for the first time, I’ve never not had Cruelty in my spec since
- You don’t need to have a 25% chance to Block to avoid Crushing Blows with Shield Block up.
- You can avoid getting Gouged by Moroes (and numerous other mobs) by Tanking inside of him with your back to him
- It’s pointless to worry about getting disarmed
- Use multiple sets of Tanking gear
- Executioner for Threat, Mongoose for Survivability, Battlemaster for Nothing
- It’s more important you buy the right Badge items and less important what order you get them in
- Sundering Trash is trashy, but 2.4 Devastating it, isn’t.
- If you wait for the perfect piece to gem/enchant, you’ll often be waiting a long, long time
- If you have to interrupt a fast cast spell, don’t use your global cooldown and instead hold aggro with Heroic Strike
- Once you’ve hit 70 the last thing on your mind should be, “What resistance sets do I need?“
- The Darkmoon cards aren’t really worth it anymore
- Knowing when to Line of Sight pull saves a lot of wipes
- Don’t worry about getting a lot of Hit Rating, it’ll find you on it’s own in good time
- When a pull goes really, really bad, you can either Intimidating Shout or Challenging Shout. Running is not an option.
- It doesn’t matter what race your warrior is.
- If you don’t PvP, you’ll miss out on a lot of big upgrades
- The ZG helm enchant is still the best helm enchant
- If your group is clueless, multi-target tanking is nearly impossible
- Socket for Stamina. It’s the one thing you can always count on being useful in every situation.
- As much as I hate Figurine of the Colossus… you should get it. When it comes to multi-target tanking, there’s no better stat than Block Rating as long as you have a Shield Spike on your Shield. Block Rating is also the best stat to stack for becoming Passively Uncrushable. Beyond that the stat is very, very poor.
- The Best tanks are Confident, excellent Communicators and take the time to get the Best gear/gems/enchants
- You are ready to go to Karazhan/Zul’Aman/SSC/Black Temple. The trick is convincing everyone else.
- The key to raiding is being more prepared than everyone else in the raid and not being annoying.
- Fast Weapons generate more threat than Slow Weapons in the majority of boss encounters.
- If the mob doesn’t hit hard, don’t use Shield Block, Thunderclap or Demoralizing Shout.
- There’s no perfect threat formula, but for the most part Expertise > Hit > Block Value > Everything else.
- Use Omen not for yourself, but for everyone else.
- Eventually, you do have to stop using Thunderfury.
- Improved Shield Wall is not a waste of 2 points, but it shouldn’t be in every spec either.
- Sometimes, Cleave is better than Heroic Strike, but most of the time, it isn’t.
- Sometimes, the off-tank has more important things to do than refresh your Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap
- It’s not worth pursuing Parry, but any you get by accident is fine.
- Khorium Destroyer remains the item, I’ve had the longest and used the most.
- 490 Defense makes you immune to Critical hits, not Crushing Blows.
- Resilience is not worthless in PvE.
- I still wish I had picked Engineering.
- Effective Health isn’t everything, but it’s where you have to start.
- Improved Defensive Stance is worth it.
- You’ll be poor for a while, but not forever.
- What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… just make sure it doesn’t kill you.
- The Main Tank wasn’t born knowing everything, he looked a lot of it up.
- Confidence is King.
- Don’t be afraid to break CC with Thunderclap at the start of the pull.
- Critters are an excellent source of Vitamin R.
- The Auto-Blocker is more fun than good.
- Super Healing Potions aren’t good. Chain drinking Ironshield Potions is where it’s at.
- Defense Rating offers nearly as much Avoidance as Dodge Rating and as a result, is not even close to worthless after 490.
- Blacksmithing really isn’t worth it if you just hit 70.
- If you aren’t using Itemrack (or some other similar addon), you are wasting everyone’s time.
- There is such thing as Over-Tanking.
- The Hit Rating cap is 142 for Tanks.
- Being Passive Uncrushable is possible, but most of the time, not terribly practical.
- Taunt > Challenging Shout > Mocking Blow, in that order.
- You can never carry too many trinkets.
- The Threat Rotation is Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate, Devastate.
- The X button is a beautiful thing.
- Too much Heroic Striking is a bad thing.
- Respect your Healers or they might just kill you.
- 12/5/44 is the best spec for Threat.
- Taunt does nothing unless you lose aggro.
- Shattered Sun Pendant of Resolve IS BETTER than Brooch of Deftness
- Leading makes you a better Tank
- Just as you can gear for the fight, you also can spec for the fight.
- Your group will immediately gain respect for you if you can mark targets really, really fast.
- Four 20-slot bags is the single best investment you can make.
As giant as that list is, it really doesn’t do justice to what’s been accomplished on this site this past year. I really can’t thank you, my readers and commenters, enough for the contribution you’ve made. This site really wouldn’t have gone anywhere without your comments, questions and support.
I’m somewhat reluctant to add this, but over this past year many have asked, how do I make money? Simple, I don’t. As you might have guessed from the start of this post, this site was formed on a whim with no real plan or financial goal in mind. It’s why you’ve never seen advertisements on the site (despite some of you encouraging me to do it :P) and who knows maybe you will one day, but regardless for those of you that have expressed interest in supporting the cost associated with running the site, you can use the following button.
Anyway it’s been and continues to be a blast running this site. 1 year down with no plans of stopping any time soon.
Cheers,
Veneretio
May 30th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Over 2000 comments, wow. Imagine how many there’d be if you include all of the ones of mine you deleted
Don’t think I didn’t notice you backtrack and say “It doesn’t matter what race your warrior is.”
Btw, the bullet point above about hit rating is still longer than the actual article..
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hbombs reply on May 30, 2008 8:30 am:
replying to speidals comment in an effort to jump to the top lol
HAPPY BDAY TANKINGTIPS!
Thx for all the great advice. Its helped me out tremendesly.
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Veneretio reply on May 30, 2008 4:19 pm:
lol crafty
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May 30th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Happy b-day..
I would just like to say tnx for all the great info you and this site have providede over the last year. Been a pleasure to read, hope alot more will come in the future. Tnx m8.
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May 30th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Happy birthday, and good job Vene.
Myself and my tanks have spent many a happy hour discussing points raised here.
May it continue!
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May 30th, 2008 at 4:50 am
happy b-day
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May 30th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Happy birthday. Thanks for the site and hope to see it around for many more years to come.
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May 30th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Happy anniversary!
This site really helped me a lot when I started tanking,
so keep up the good work!
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Congratulations!
Long may you reign!
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Cheers on 1 YEAR!
Thanks for the info and hope it keeps going strong!
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Congratz, couldnt have guessed that its been active that long.
Noticed the site about half a year ago and from that day on I think its 5 times a week minimum I check into it for the surprise of new interesting posts.
Helped me alot in tanking, would be a big lie to differ.
Keep up the good work!
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Happy birthday and thanks for all !
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:45 am
HURRAH HURRAY! Happy Birthday TankingTips!
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:48 am
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May 30th, 2008 at 6:51 am
much props to you vene for keeping this going, it makes my workday slightly more enjoyable :]
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May 30th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Outstanding! Congratulations and thank you for the effort and thought you put into the site.
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May 30th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Happy Birthday TankingTips.com. Thank you for all of the great topics, discussions, and new ideas to learn and work on. I know it’s helped me out a ton and will certainly be a main references for continued learning and changes in the future. ty.
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May 30th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Still waiting for a retraction and apology for
http://www.tankingtips.com/2007/07/06/what-race-should-my-warrior-be/
=P
“Socket for Stamina. It’s the one thing you can always count on being useful in every situation.”
/snicker
[item]Subtle Crimson Spinel[/item] FTW!
(But only if you know exactly why you’re doing it!)
Ok, Ok, I’ll stop being a pain in the ass (briefly!)
Happy Birthday! Keep it up!
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Veneretio reply on May 30, 2008 4:21 pm:
lol you and I both know I only wrote that line that way because
1) It was shorter
2) I didn’t want to have to delete any comments
Trolls still suck
As for your silly spinels… that’s where I’ll be calling in that favour I talked to you about a month ago about
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Happy B-Day
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Congrats! What wonderful work!
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Happy B-Day. I have learned a lot from this web site, which equates to me having more fun playing WoW along with everyone I group with. Thank you!
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Thanks for the great site. I have learned a ton.
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Happy Birthday to a fantastic website!
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Great website, grats!
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May 30th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Your site has really changed my tanking practice over the last year, and for that, Vene, thank you.
You’ve done an amazing service to the entire warrior community and if only everyone would visit your site reguarly, I wouldn’t get so frustrated when playing my healer/dps toons.
Keep up the good work. It is always appreciated.
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May 30th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Happy B-day Tankingtips.com
Thank you for sharing your learning process with us so that we too can learn.
Thank you for taking the time and energy to read our comments and correct us when we’re noobs.
Thank you for investing your time in reading our blogs, your comments are always welcome, especially when I am wrong!
Sometimes right, sometimes patently wrong, regardless you’re a huge asset to the tanking community, so once more with feeling… Thank you!
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May 30th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Happy birthday Tankingtips!
This site helped me tremendously and even though I recently stopped playing my warrior in favor of a druid, I still check this site. The information is great and given in a somewhat entertaining way.
Keep up the good work!
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May 30th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Happy Birthday Day.
Since I started my warrior as a result of not finding tanks (lazy bastards) who can tank for me and my friends I had no guidance til I started reading this site. I started tanking in Dec 07 with my cool blue 70 gear (and some lower than 70 >_
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May 30th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VENE!
Your site helped me improve alot!
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May 30th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Tankingtips, Thank you very much, this site has also helped me in so many ways. HB
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May 30th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Thanks Vene for all the great info. I’m the tank I am today in part for finding and reading your site.
The “I Just Hit 70″ gear list may be the single most valuable post I found anywhere.
Thanks again!
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May 30th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for all the congrats and kind words guys and gals
I can’t wait to get back from this holiday so I can do up another post and another podcast!
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May 30th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Vene your blog has helped me in so many ways by breaking down tanking not as a theorycrafting science, but the finer intricacies of the role. Thanks and keep up the great blog, articles and podcasts! I hope there’s much more to come!
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May 30th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Happy Birthday and thanks for the wealth of tips!
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May 30th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I’ve always loved your site and I recommend it to all my tank friends.
Huge thanks and Happy Birthday!!
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May 30th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Happy Birthday tanktips! Full marks for a site that manages to entertain me while helping me improve my tanking. Great stuff.
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May 30th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
TYVM Vene. You site help me a lot to improve my tanking skill.
(sorry for my english, i’m a French native speaker)
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May 31st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I yell at my guildmates if they try to attack you. Especially if its a DPS warrior who tries to avoid tanking.
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Speidel reply on June 1, 2008 12:00 am:
Saw you wave at me at Hyjal on thursday
Of course it was after the curb stomping the rest of your guild gave me…
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May 31st, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Long Live the King!
Grats!
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May 31st, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Happy B-day!
One year you say
I didn’t even know I been following this site almost from very start. I’m proud to say I have read every single post and it has helped me a great deal. Specially at start of TBC.
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June 1st, 2008 at 4:56 am
Happy Birthday!
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June 1st, 2008 at 6:34 am
Happy Happy birthday!
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June 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Happy Birthday and on a side note Illidan down!
I made shear my bitch lol
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 am
Is that really the best picture you could come up with?
Happy Birthday! Grats, Vene!
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Veneretio reply on June 2, 2008 8:55 am:
Haha, it took all my time just to prepare the post before going on holidays. You send me a better birthday cake… I’ll replace it
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Tara reply on June 2, 2008 9:28 am:
You’re on!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Grats to one of the most useful WoW blogs i have read!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
happy bday! keep on the good work vene and may your blade be sharp and your shield spiked
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June 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Gratz on 1 year Vene. This site has helped alot with fine tuning the transition of tanking pre BC and tanking TBC. Looking forward to being a part of any silly itemization changes in WotLK.
Again, Gratz on going strong.
Oh BTW…did you ever get around to that Fury Warrior post you promised like back in Jan?
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admin reply on June 2, 2008 12:14 pm:
It’s sat in my draft section for many months about half-done. If I get around to finishing it one day, I’ll still have to decide whether it’s too far out of the scope of this blog or not. Combine that with mixed interest on the topic here and I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon.
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Tara reply on June 2, 2008 1:37 pm:
In a way…understanding how to gear a fury warrior is important to prot DPS…which is important to every prot warrior…no?
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Veneretio reply on June 2, 2008 2:26 pm:
If such a post did happen, it’d more discuss Fury Warriors as tanks. Even the idea of Prot DPS while being totally in love with the concept, I’ve always thought outside the scope of this site. The idea being that this is a site about Warrior Tanking so not necessarily covering all aspects of being a Protection Warrior. I can’t say I’ve always been great at maintaining this focus, but nonetheless that’s the goal.
Ridlyblade reply on June 3, 2008 8:54 am:
Prot dps is a fun concept, there were a few times when rolling with a prot pally and sufficient healers, i’d throw on my deeps gear instead of tanking and the pally throwing on his healing gear…
It was fun to make a few of the actual specced dps classes realized they needed to wake up after they saw the WWS for an Astromancer Solarian fight done that way =P
But, on a side note about the fury topic, as our primary raid role is to tank, when guilds do allow a fury warrior, knowing how to properly tank and generate insane amounts of threat definately helps those of us who have gone to the darkside understand how long we have to really lay into bosses and help the people who are tanking with ways to maximize their threat so you don’t have to just auto attack once you pop pot, trinket c/ds in conjunction with heroism
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June 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Awesome Vene! Grats to you and thank you for your insightful articles and entertaining podcasts.
All the best!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
ahhhhh! Posts can only have 3 parents!!! NOOOOOOUUUU
I really don’t say anything useful anymore.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
In any event, I still think a post on gearing for prot DPS would be very helpful to a lot of warrior tanks. Even if you’re the “MT” you won’t be tanking ALL the time. A lot of fights only require one person in tanking gear…the rest of the tank will be attempting to DPS.
…and if done right, gearing yourself for good fury/prot DPS is a lot more complicated than people might think. Requires a lot of thought, reactive regemming, gear substitution/swapping, etc etc.
That +hit and crit sweet spot is difficult to maintain sometimes!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
It’s not really that complicated. If you’re at the point where a warrior DPSing is acceptable over bringing in another true DPS class, you just wear your best DPS gear, try to hit 142 hit rating, and get a big slow 1 hander. WW on CD and devastate spam. Obviously you can theory craft it into the ground, but it’s not that complicated.
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Tara reply on June 2, 2008 3:26 pm:
“True DPS class”?
Fury warriors should out-dps anyone on most fights.
Even cumulated WWS reports have backed that up.
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Kavtor reply on June 2, 2008 4:01 pm:
Fury warriors hold their own, but I wouldn’t expect them to show up 4pc casters & hunters, or decently geared rogues with decent group synergy.
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Tara reply on June 3, 2008 6:33 am:
http://www.wwsscoreboard.com/classplacings.php
Note: This includes protection warriors and arms warriors in the data.
Sorry you don’t have any good fury warriors in your guild.
The rogues and warlocks in my guild are all much better geared than me for DPS and the warlocks are pushing 1400 DPS sustained and the rogues 1100, but I still out-dmg them overall with ease with my 1k.
Fury is just OP.
Certain fights are harder just like they are for any melee, but for an entire night of raiding a fury warrior can’t be beat.
ivanstone reply on June 2, 2008 6:51 pm:
You forgot the most important part of Prot Warrior DPS: Strength Epeen! Trying to break 800 unbuffed myself.
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Kavtor reply on June 3, 2008 7:25 am:
@ Tara
The reason warriors have put up such high over all numbers on that chart is because of their wildly inflated Hyjal numbers. Pull out the fly downs for every boss. Disregarding demons (where warglaives have a huge advantage) and Hyjal, where most of the records are set with Necromancer haste buffs (which scale pretty well for warriors) you come up with a better picture of where warriors sit over all.
Since it’s just an average of the top DPS, it’s not including tanks, and probably consisting of just war glaived fury warriors. Legendaries tend to twist the numbers a bit. My fury warrior’s got one.
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Kavtor reply on June 3, 2008 7:29 am:
@Ivan
I’ve been going with ArP myself. I’ve gotten saddled with too much flat AP. (600 STR, 1900 AP unbuffed) I should really look into finding alternate gear with STR and seeing what the difference is when you scale up STR, rather than scaling up ArP.
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June 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Hey Vene, thanks a ton for all the great information you’ve published on this site. I’ve found a lot of it invaluable in my progression from a new 70, trying to gear up for Kara, through tanking my guild’s first Netherspite kill, to main tanking my guild’s first Halazzi kill. And I’ve had more than a couple T5+ guilds ask me to join.
I won’t give you all the credit, but your posts definitely helped a lot. Thanks!
And happy birthday to Tankingtips!
Realm: Zul’Jin
Character: Thireas
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June 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Just found the site and love it. Wish I had found it earlier. Some of the tips have been great. I went from lvl 70 one day to Off tanking in 25 mans having downed Gruul and Mag before ever setting foot in Kara or Heroics. My guild died and I went DPS for some PVP breaks but now I miss tanking and need to start getting back into the swing. Lots go great resources for the soon to be a tank again Warrior.
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