What's a Tank? The Noob's Guide to 5-Man Parties

By thenixie Last Updated: 2011/12/25 Patch: 5.4.2

youdoeveryone's

So...what's a tank, and why do I need one?

rightonealwaysMany of the following examples use warrior skill references. Each tanking class has its own tricks. This is about how to think like a tank - not a class guide - learn your class's tricks, and insert the appropriate equivalent here. Then go write a 'tanking for guide'!instancewill not drop offcasting pathseeyournotnotentire

"I promise to be on my best behavior - if only someone will tell me how best to behave..."

If you are the Party Leader
Grateful Acknowledgements

Comments

Comment by TheDrWhat

Amazing guide! Great job and thank you for the awesome help for the newcomers. :)

Edit: spelling.

Comment by darkdoug19

Not a bad guide, there is a lot of decent information here, but also a lot that is completely wrong.

Party Roles - Crowd Control - Mage Ice Blocks only protect themselves, this isn't CC, you mention sheep later, so I'm assuming this is just a mistake.

Under tanking you say, "Paladins, since you have no thrown or distance weapons." Which is completely wrong. I know you said this isn't a class guide, but Avenger's Shield is what should be used for pulling.

You also don't make any mention of the different abilities each class has for AE (area effect, multiple mobs) tanking vs Single target. Warriors have Thunder Clap, Paladins have Consecration and Hammer of the Righteous, Deathknights have and , Druids have . Those are just the base abilities, each class has more ways to deal with packs of mobs. The abilities used on packs are different than the ones used on single targets.

Some of the things you say for Healers is completely wrong, and some of it is just insulting. Healers should always be paying attention to the game, always aware of their surroundings, and in most circumstances should stay in one spot, but must be able to move if necessary. A good healer knows when a dps is standing in fire, or is about to get hit with something and will queue up a heal before it hits. A good healer will never stand in fire, or get cleaved by mobs. A great healer will know when to use their own CC or interrupts. Often interrupting a big spell is far better than trying to heal the damage it just did. Also, dispels can be more important than heals at times.

Also, a Priest with should be doing damage during times of low healing. Paladins should be judging for . Saying you should just stand there and do nothing but heal is just plain wrong.

But, like I said at the beginning, most of the information is useful. At the very least it's a good read for those that are completely new to WoW.

Also, something I was told when I started, and it almost always applies:

If the Tank dies it's the Healer's fault, if the Healer dies it's the Tank's fault, if the DPS dies it's their own fault.

Comment by sum12321

I disagree with several points you made in this guide. The first is that you should always adjust for the convenience of the dps. The only person you really care about is the healer as he is the only person(in a heroic) that matters other than the tank. Second, is that it is the dps's fault that you lost aggro. Tanks have so many aggro modifiers that if you lose aggro, then you are doing something wrong(assuming there are no fight mechanics causing the loss of aggro.) Third is that healing is the toughest job in a dungeon. The only time that is true is when you have the worst tank in the universe who doesn't even know what aggro is. The tank must be watching for anything that may disrupt the flow of the battle such as a patrol or an attack which he must ready a cooldown to avoid dying. Forth is that a healers only focus is on text and on the health bars of the party. If a mob drops an acid cloud right on top of you, you will likely die before you realize what has happened. Also you must be prepared to interrupt an attack if possible because it will often cost less mana to do so instead of healing whatever damage is caused by the cast. Fifth is that healers should never do damage. All classes except druids gain some form of benefit from attacking an enemy. Priests have a talent called atonement which causes holy smite and holy fire to heal for an amount equal to the damage done. Shaman have a talent called Telluric Currents which grants them mana equal to 40% of the damage done. Paladins have Seal of Insight which grants mana and health every time they attack with their weapon. They also have Judgment of the pure which causes them to get a haste buff when they use their judgement attack.

Comment by thenixie

A friendly message to all potential posters and commenters :

When you have done this for a long time, and know all the ins and outs, it can be very tough to remember that not everyone was born knowing THE BASICS - both when partying with someone who has never heard them, and when reading/commenting on a post designed to help them. :)

Seems like much of the feedback here comes from folks who want to debate how all of the advice above is just plain wrong because when you are chain-queueing heroics, all of this stuff will lead you astray. To those folks - try to remember that this guide wasn't written for you. :)

This guide is for the person who has been soloing all their lives and has never been in a five-man. Someone who has never heard of a tank and has no idea what one's job is. In game, sadly this person often queues for a dungeon, doesn't know the basics of how not to interfere with the party - and rather than anyone explaining, the poor bloke gets votekicked and told to "L2P" (at best). Whether it's demographics or psychology, the fact is, many wow players, rather than being supportive, can be huge jerks when discovering someone wasn't just born knowing things that they have long since forgotten they had to learn/have explained to them. This guide isn't for those people - it's for the people they yell at, demean, and insult. It's for players who go into a dungeon once in their lives, and get treated so badly for not being born with the info above genetically encoded that they decide, as a result, to just never group again, and are cheated of the chance to enjoy a huge part of the game content they pay for.

There are more of them than you think. :(

This guide, is designed to help those players learn enough to not put them in the line of that kind of abuse. Once they have that - they may actually come back - and the more they come back, the more of those complexities they will encounter, and the more of them they will learn. You didn't learn them all in one day either, no matter how it may seem looking back.

If you'd like to debate advanced healing, raid dynamics, etc. - there are places for that. If you want to review here - I welcome your comments, and ask that you consider them in the context of this guide's purpose. Ask yourself, with each comment, whether it applies to a person in their first party ever, running Wailing Caverns. :)

Nothing is going to drop acid clouds on you in Wailing Caverns. Someone who has never healed a dungeon before needs to learn how to manage other peoples' health bars as their first priority, rather than 'killing the mob' as their first priority. Once they have figured out how to keep four other people alive - they can move on to figuring out how to be more helpful than that in the right situation. Until they have figured out the first, they don't have another priority.

While I try to read the feedback to anything I post so that I can correct/update as needed, I won't be responding individually to these types of posts any more (and have removed my earlier replies). The bottom line is "if you are talking about a mechanic more advanced than anything that appears in WC, if you are talking about something more complex than a FIRST-TIMER needs to know, my answer is: please go back and read the purpose of this guide (it's right there at the top of this page), as you are commenting on... something else."

And to those noobs whose guide this is - There's always more to learn. You didn't come here to become an expert - you came here to get a foundation. Don't let all the added stuff (or the players who want to pile it on you on your first day of kindergarten) intimidate or confuse you. Get your basics down, and when you have that you'll be able to learn the rest one lesson at a time, as you and your skill set are ready for them. For today - just getting through Wailiing Caverns without pulling mobs the tank wasn't ready for, or keeping four strangers alive (tanks AND healers!) is enough. (and if you understood the debate going on in some of the posts above, noob - congratulations! You have begun to make sense of the strange language of parties - your time here has already yielded you new knowledge and good results! ;) )

Lok'tar!

Comment by ligerpfish

Great guide! These are the kinds of things that usually take too long to explain to WOW newcomers while in-game, and the things that are painful to learn yourself by making mistakes while in a group. I would recommend this guide for anyone fairly new to WOW who doesn't have an experienced friend or guild to help them learn their way around instances. And actually, I would recommend this guide to those who have played WOW for years as well! I see way too many cocky DPSers overnuking in groups, and yet they keep doing it. Makes it difficult on the tank and healer, so I would agree with the author in that it's best to back down your own DPS and do the group a favor.

Comment by noobisafroob

nice guide!

info: 10/10
layout: 10/10
text: 9/10, Sometimes you write about something too long.

also i reccomend one thing to you

add an addon section, with recommended combat addons

if youre gonna add this, some recomedations:
Recount/Skada - damage meters, hey check how much DPS overall damage, healing, HPS , damage taken etcetera.
Deadly Boss Mods - for some bosses this shows you when to move from stuff on the ground.
Healium - gives you a nice view of party members HP, along with some nice buttons you can click on this is only good for people who prefer mouse tho

oooh and for that healing part, i am a mouse healer, using the Healium addon, and i got a nice overview of all the party members, HoTs/shields ect. and without having to target him
also dont need to click skills on bar, since they are always on the right place where you put them.
i can also keyheal, but i prefer having my dps spells on my keybinds, than my heals.

and i also recomend that you add that mouse moving is good to, makes sharper turns, easyer to quickly look behind you etcetera

Comment by 996479

Thank you for the information!

As a lvl 15 noob this gives me incentive to try out a dungeon instance.

Comment by MrSCH

Who's the tank

Comment by wildcoyote13

Really wished I read this guide when I started dging. A level 60 dwarf hunter who has never set foot into a dungeon until she found herself in the demonic Outlands. Ouch. You can imagine tank always yelling at me because I didn't know how to turn off pet's growl, not to mention my poor baby was tenacity, healers hissing at me to watch my pet's health and other fellow dpsers laughing at my damage. Luckily I was taken under my guild's wing and My kitty, Cerea, and I are now a force not to be taken lightly when it comes to dgs. Thank you for making this wonderful and informational guide.

Comment by Stuphid

Nice guide! Kudo's.

How about adding some of REALLY basic stuff, like using keybinds instead of clicking...Using your mouse to move around instead of keyboard turning and don't Tank with with your back turned to mobs?

It might turn out to be a long read, but IMO it's what makes the difference between a Tank that's 'ok' and one that get's invited back. ;)

Comment by 1053301

I sure wish I'd known about this guide 3 yrs ago when I first started playing. I was in my first dungeon and called names. Made me feel so inferior. Now I try to help others, but i type too slow for the "running" tank.

Comment by Galdash

thenixie.

That's indeed a great guide! If you don't mind, I would like to translate/adapt your guide to portuguese, so the new players from Brazil can have such a great and welcome info on their hands. I'll keep the credits and all and hopefully it will stick too. :)

Thanks for the outstanding work on it!

Comment by Isgebind

It's an excellent guide, but it still needs some work in terms of typos (and I do apologize, normally I would list them, but I read it right before going to bed--I'll try to come back and find them for you), since there are quite a few of them. I loved the humor, especially about bored tanks. I wish I had had this guide (especially a note about warriors needing to be Protection and having sword and board when I was an Arms warrior trying to tank WC back in the BC days). I'll be linking this to my newbie friends when they get on WoW!

Comment by Jimbofult

Nice job - Thank you for taking the time to explain some of the fundamentals. Thank you, also, for reminding me that I am not the only one that jerks scream at in dungeons.

Comment by ezedu

Amazing guide, full of useful tips.
Like a lot of ppl I'm sorry I found it so many years after I've started playing.
Reading it made me realize how much I wanted to play the game again!
Thanks!

Comment by Ashenmoon

Excellent guide!

I've returned to WoW after a couple years and I found this a great refresher for the do's and don't's in dungeons. I tended to avoid instances following the implementation of LFG, because I got fed up with the often not-too-constructive-criticism I had to suffer as a tank, never really knowing whether it was all justified or not.

I'm about to hit 90 with my DK and this has given me incentive to try my hand at dungeons again, so thanks <3.

Comment by 1293468

Nice guide to those newbie.I think every new players should see this before playing wow.

Comment by free2bmenow

Thank you very much. Well written and highly understandable. I have only been playing since MOP, leveled without dungeons for many of the reasons stated in comments.

My best take away from the guide was with regards to healing - your actual key setup with combat spells on left hand, heal spells on right hand along with the reasons for such decisions. Movement keys on the right hand arrow keys and using F keys to target party members.

What's a Tank? The Noob's Guide to 5-Man Parties

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