Tips for starting druid tanks (low levels)

Ok my Dudu is now 77 and tanking was meant to be his OS but it seems thats all i do even though my main specc is Resto...

I only took up tanking at like level 50 so i dont know about early game but later on charge then spam swipe seems to hold aggro pretty well

else ask your group to wait a few seconds so that you can pick up aggro
 
dakeyras said:
While leveling you dont need to worry about tank gear. DPS gear is pretty much tank gear for druids while leveling (agility and stamina). Your rage problems is probably due to you spamming maul. While maul generates very good threat, it is extremely expensive on rage. It takes a chunk of rage, and has the downside that it generates a yellow hit, meaning you dont generate any rage from that hit either. A good tactic might be to maul, 1 white hit, then maul again. You also generate rage through getting hit, so you will notice it gets better once you start doing instances with some more damage happening.
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OMG please tell me ur from darkspear -- i hope its not coincedence --- ur signature is a guildname is see plenty while hanging out outside Orgi waiting for bg;s ...
 
I dinged 20 last night and got cat form and finally got prowl, w00t! Now I feel happy again.

I ran deadmines last night @ lvl 18 and most of the dps were lvl 20-22 and 1st time players, so you know they just hit anything and everything, with the added joy of the lock fearing everything and his friend...bringing a platoon back. Trying to hold aggro was rough with mobs.

I then coached them about aggro as well as kill orders via marks, they gave me 5 seconds to get my rage going and it went perfect. We downed the captain in an accidental ninja pull along with 5 mobs and kicked Van Cleef in the panty...all this with a pally "healer" with no intellect gear and retri specced. Almost as bad as last time's pally tank with a 1H sword and no shield.

Are pallies the new huntards?

I found swipe on group mobs worked well, but only if I put in some quick white attacks as well to build rage ... before I was sitting on 15 ... now I have a bout 30-45 to use that way, which helps if someone pulls aggro. I can effectively gather 3 mobs with high aggro if rage buildup is on its 1min cooldown off the bat, attacking one, growling at another and fairie firing the 3rd.

Facing the mobs away from the dps helps me in 2 ways ... 1st dps hits harder ... 2ndly I can see which mobs are attacking me or other players. This tanking thing is actually kinda cool. I always had respect for tanks, but now even more so.
 
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Are pallies the new huntards?
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Retnoobs have been making huntards look good since the dawn of wow. There's just more of them now.
 
God's truth ... I cracked a joke in a 25man raid saying "wow! 6 pallies in the raid... 20g says I'm still not going to get BoM"... The joke was on me when I had to ask for BoM after the ready check. :(

People have become increasingly stupid in raids compared to TBC days. No mob or mt marking and when you ask who MT is, everyone's too busy asking for a JC to cut them gems in raid etc. So I've changed my "Who is MT?" line to "WTS Tricks of the Trade".
 
My worst experience with pallies was when a retpally decided to be the main tank in HoL HC. It got worse when he decided that sword and shield were prot specced and the other dps agreed with him.
 
bullzeye.za said:
Spec into Furor, and use the "/cast !bear form" macro to generate rage when you get low, it'll generate 10 rage and not shift you out of bear form. Really handy trick.

Also glyph of Maul is essential.

Glyphed maul means two targets at a time with high threat, and swipe gets everything around you.

Generally I have button 1 being Growl, 2 being Maul, 3 being swipe.

Growl for taunting off of the nab dps, and spam 2 and 3 as much as you can, throw in lacerate on bosses, and mangle when it's off cooldown when you get it.
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Thanks for the tips, I'll have to check them out. I completely forgot about glyphs though! :o

Which major/minor glyphs should I get for low levels?
 
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For tanking, Glyph of Maul for the major glyph. The other two that are available are Growl and Survival Instincts, and neither really stand out. At level 36 you get Frenzied Regeneration and you have two slots.

The minor glyph is mostly for for whatever you feel like. I usually take Thorns, since I dislike casting the buff every 10 minutes. Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth seems to be the most useful, but only if your grouping a lot.

If you plan on soloing a lot, I suggest getting Glyph of Rake. If you rake the target, it prevents them from fleeing when their health gets low, which is very useful.

Major Glyphs
Minor Glyphs
 
That sounds real useful, thanks boet!

I hate having to shift into normal form to moonfire a target that's fleeing.
 
Not an easy thing to time. Too soon and it breaks when you hit. Too late and he runs away before it procs. At least they made it a spell and not a talent like it used to be.

Interesting fact though, Hurricane doesn't break Entangling Roots. Useful for getting a high HP mob down a bit before getting to melee.
 
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