Tanking Guide (Dragonflight 10.2.6) (2024)

Table of Contents

• 1. The Purpose of This Article
• 2. Introduction
• 3. Profile of a Great Tank
• +4. General Concerns
  • 4.1. Add-ons and User Interface Settings
    • 4.1.1. Threat Meter
    • 4.1.2. Name Plates
  • 4.2. Cooldown Trackers
  • 4.3. Keybinds
  • 4.4. Gear Optimization
    • 4.4.1. Tailoring to the Encounter
  • 4.5. Knowledge of the Encounter
    • 4.5.1. Marking Targets
• +5. Aggro
  • 5.1. How does Threat and Aggro Work?
    • 5.1.1. Threat
    • 5.1.2. Aggro
  • 5.2. Ability Rotation
  • 5.3. Initial Aggro
    • 5.3.1. Picking up Adds
    • 5.3.2. Using Offensive Cooldowns
  • 5.4. Maintaining Aggro
    • 5.4.1. "Tab Targeting"
  • 5.5. Regaining Aggro (Taunting and Tank-Switching)
    • 5.5.1. How to Taunt
    • 5.5.2. How to Tank-Switch
• +6. Survival
  • 6.1. Active Survival
  • 6.2. Cooldowns
    • 6.2.1. General Guidelines
  • 6.3. Positioning and Movement
    • 6.3.1. Pushing
• 7. Maximizing Your Raid's and Your Own DPS
• 8. Consistency
• 9. Leadership and Attitude
• 10. Conclusions
• 11. Changelog

This article is a comprehensive guide to tanking. It will cover every aspectof the role, from the fundamentals to more advanced concepts — everythingyou need to understand and apply in order to be a great tank. Whether you arenew to the role or a seasoned veteran, this guide will be of use to you.

This article will not go into technical details about talent specs, propergemming or anything else that is tedious, and specific to a class or spec. Youwill find specific information pertaining to tanking classes andspecs in our existing tanking class guides. This is not to say that we willnever ever make a mention regarding a specific class or ability, but do notexpect to gain any class-specific knowledge from this guide.

A common misconception about tanking is that it is the most difficult roleto perform, and should therefore not be attempted by new players. This is notthe case; while tanking does demand a lot of up-front knowledge, it mechanicallyis quite simple to execute. The barrier to entry can be daunting for those whohave never tanked before, which we hope to remedy with this guide.

The characteristics of a great tank can be summarized in a few sentences.

• A great tank is intimately familiar with their class — its strengths,its weaknesses, and its limitations — and knows how to take advantage ofits toolkit to maximize their play.
• A great tank comes prepared to every dungeon/raid encounter, and is aware ofimportant mechanics and how to deal with them when they occur.
• A great tank is able to maintain threat on all targets they are assigned totank, including picking up new targets and quickly taunting back targets theylose threat on.
• A great tank understands the various positional requirements of DPS players(especially melee), and does a good job at minimizing their movement anddowntime.
• A great tank plays proactively by pre-positioning for mechanics and usingcooldowns in anticipation of (and not in response to) damage spikes.
• A great tank prioritizes consistency above all else, keeping damage intakeand boss positioning the same every pull to facilitate great play from the restof their raid.
• A great tank has the qualities of a leader, and is not shy to step up andtake control of the group, including coordinating interrupts and stuns, andcalling for defensive cooldowns from their healers.

In addition to this, as tanks are the drivers of the partyor raid group, a tank who is able to set a fast pace will make a dungeonor raid go extremely smoothly and quickly.

In this section we will cover a number of things which will improve allaspects of your tanking ability, but are not related specifically togame mechanics.

While Blizzard's standard user interface is fully functional, and willallow you to successfully perform any encounter, it is far from optimal.There are several add-ons and features which will make life easier forboth you and the rest of your raid.

Omen Threat Meter is, by far, the best threat add-on out there.It will show you how much threat you have, as well as how much threat otherpeople on the boss' threat table have. In addition to this, it also displaysother useful information, such as how long is left until the effects of threatmodifying abilities ( Misdirection, Fade) end.

There are several useful nameplate add-ons, such as Tidy Plates.

Name plates are essentially bars which appear over various enemies (andfriendly units, if you so desire) in your proximity. They not only allowyou to select enemies with ease (by clicking on the name plates) but they canalso provide other useful information.

Threat Plates allows you, at a glance, to see which targets you have aggroof, and which you do not, as well as which targets you are likely to loseaggro of soon (where someone is catching up to you in threat).

This is achieved by providing different colors and/or sizes to the nameplates of nearby targets. For example, targets of which you have aggroare green and smaller in size, while targets which you do not have aggroof are red and larger in size (making them easier to notice and click).

A name plate add on is an essential tool in every tank's arsenal.

In order to coordinate stuns, interrupts, and cooldowns with your party orraid, it is strongly recommended that you use an add-on or weakaura to track thecooldown status of each ability available to your group. We recommendMethod Raid Tools,(previously known as Exorsus Raid Tools) which has a Raid Cooldowns module that you canset up to track the cooldowns of any important spells you may use or call for during adungeon or raid encounter.

Keybinding is a near-mandatory practice for all classes and specs, andtanking is no exception. As a tank, split second decisions can make or breakyour raid's chances to succeed. Furthermore, as a tank, you often have to moveand rotate your camera, while at the same time using various abilities. Yousimply cannot do this efficiently if you must use your mouse to click them.

As a result, we recommend making ample use of keybinds for your tank. You donot have to bind everything; consumables and various items that are not used orare used rarely in combat can be clicked. Rotational abilities, cooldowns, andutility spells like your interrupt should all be bound to keys that you caneasily press in combat.

Needless to say, you should research your class and specialization, in orderto find out what the best stats are for you, and adapt your gearing strategyaccordingly.

One of the ways in which you can make the transition from being a goodtank to being a great tank is to understand that tanking is all about adaptingyour gear (and talents) to the encounter.

As such, you should always collect and carry with you as many alternativegear pieces as possible.

This will allow you to change your gear on a fight-by-fight basis. Forexample: if an encounter has infrequent periods of extremely high burst damageon the tank, you can use a large absorb trinket with a long cooldown. If a bossdeals heavy but frequent melee damage, you can use a trinket that increases yourArmor passively.

Understanding the damage profile of an encounter (the pattern, frequency, andtype of damage that is being dealt to tanks by enemies in an encounter) is keyto making good decisions about gear and talents. A great tank's gear and talentsetups are always dynamic.

As a tank, you should be intimately familiar with all of the encounter'smechanics, to a much greater degree than a DPS player or even a healer must.

Only when you are familiar with the encounter will you know what thebest time is to use defensive or offensive cooldowns, what position is idealfor tanking the boss, where you will need to be positioned to most easilypick up new adds.

Additionally, as a tank, you are in the unique position of having a goodgeneral overview of the encounter, and how your raid is performing it. With asolid understanding of the encounter, you can easily offer advice andsuggestions for improving execution. This is why many high end raiding guildsoften have raid leaders who are tanks.

While not applicable to raid bosses, being familiar with the varioustrash groups (in both raids and dungeons) is also essential for a tank.Knowing exactly what the trash mobs do, how damaging they are and what kindof crowd-control is (possibly) needed allows you to better gauge whether ornot you and your healer(s) are prepared to take them on.

In addition, understanding your party's various strengths and weaknesses iskey to having a successful dungeon run. For example, if you know your DPSplayers with strong AoE capabilities have their cooldowns available you can doa larger pull, or if you have a specific crowd control available (like Soothe or Control Undead), you can use those to maketroublesome packs easier to deal with.

The game allows players who are party or raid leaders, or assistants inraid groups, to place specific markings above the heads of friendly or hostiletargets.

This is typically done by right clicking the unit frame of the targetand selecting a mark, but it can also be done with a keybinding(they are listed in the Key Binding settings menu in the default Blizzardinterface). There are also add-ons which serve this purpose, but we do notconsider them to be needed.

Marks above targets can be seen by all of your party or raid members, andserve as a means to coordinate your efforts. Marks have no specific meaningexcept for the meaning your group gives to them, although there are a fewuniversally understood marks. When placed on an enemy, the skull marker, forexample, typically indicates a priority target which must be killed rightaway. Other markers can be used at your discretion, as long as their meaningis communicated to and understood by your party.

As a tank, you should bind at least 3-4 marks to accessible keys, and makefrequent use of marking targets, in order to indicate which mobs you wishto be killed first, and which you wish to be crowd-controlled.

Keep in mind that, during raid encounters, marking is generally theprerogative of your raid leader, and unless specifically directed to, youshould not interfere.

This section will cover everything you need to know, as a tank, aboutgaining, maintaining and regaining aggro. First, however, we need to lookat some introductory concepts.

Generating threat and maintaining aggro are the defining characteristicsof a tank. Understanding these concepts is crucial to your performance.

Threat is a means of measuring the level of animosity a mobhas towards a specific player. Each mob has a threat table, and everyperson who performs hostile actions towards that mob or beneficial actionstowards players who are in combat is put on that table.

There are two important actions which generate threat: dealing damageand healing. Other actions, such as casting a buff or debuff also generatethreat, but in very small amounts which are not worth discussing.

Normally, threat is generated at 1:1 ratio with damage done to the mob, anda 1:2 ratio with healing done. However, in order to facilitate tanking,tanks generate far more threat from their damage done.

Furthermore, threat does not decay (decrease) over time or otherwise, unlessa specific ability is used which has this effect, or if the encounter mechanicsspecifically affect threat.

Lastly, threat is reset if the player dies, or otherwise leaves combat withthe mob, and it cannot have a negative value.

There are many abilities that reduce your threat (such as Vanish and Fade), and some abilities can temporarily transfer threat you generateto another player (such as Tricks of the Trade and Misdirection). Some raid and dungeon mechanics can reduce or resetthreat occasionally as well.

Having aggro is a state in which players find themselves when theyhave the highest amount of threat against a particular mob, and that mobattacks them because of it. Needless to say, in principle, this is theaim of every tank.

It is important to keep in mind that there will be times when you willwant to avoid having aggro of mobs, even as a tank. This is the case infights which require multiple tanks, each with their own assignments. It isalso the case when the fight mechanics debuff you with something that makes youextremely vulnerable to the boss or other mobs.

It is worthwhile to know that you do not gain aggro of a mob simply byovertaking the current top-threat target. For example, if the person whocurrently has aggro of the boss has 1,000,000 threat, simply reaching1,000,001 threat will not cause the boss to attack you. There is a thresholdwhich must be met: 110% of the threat of the current aggro target, if youare in melee range of the boss, and 130% if you are away from the boss.

When either of those thresholds is exceeded, the boss will switchtargets to the new top-threat player, and the old tank will have to exceedthis person by 110%/130% again to regain aggro.

While knowing how to master threat-generation and how to maintain aggrois important, you must first know very well what you are supposed tobe tanking.

While tanks have rotations similar to those of DPS classes (a number ofdamaging abilities that spend and generate a particular resource), for them,this rotation is not the core part of their gameplay. Instead, the rotation oftanks only exists to generate threat and resources, but in addition to it tanksalso have to dedicate a large amount of time to actively staying alive.

Tanks generally have four categories of abilities:

• important damaging and threat-generating abilities that make up arotation;
• active mitigation abilities, which have short cooldowns and helpsurvival;
• defensive abilities with long cooldowns;
• other, miscellaneous abilities: buffs, debuffs, stuns/slows, taunts,mobility abilities, and so on.

As a tank, generally, it is your responsibility to start the encounters,or, in other words, to pull. This means that you get the opportunityto attack the boss before anyone else. This should, in theory, offer you theopportunity to gain initial aggro.

As a competent tank, you should at the very least know which of yourabilities generate high amounts of threat. Once you know this, you shouldalways have a plan for the pull, as well as for picking up adds whichjoin the fight later on. While this is class specific, and up to you toperfect, there are several guidelines to follow.

1. Always begin with the ability which generates the highest amount ofthreat.
2. Be prepared to use your taunt ability the moment you notice that youhave lost aggro of the boss.
3. Delay your debuffs and other survival cooldowns until you havestabilized your threat (obviously, if the fight mechanics require you touse a survival cooldown right away, then you should do so).

While your threat output will generally be stable, you can encounterproblems at the very start of the fight when your threat is low and all theDPS players are under the effects of their cooldowns and potions.

Therefore, you should plan accordingly and have your most powerfulabilities available. These should be coupled with any offensive cooldownswhich your class possesses, to maximize the amount of damage that you do, andthus your threat. If you are struggling with initial threat, you may open witha taunt ability to benefit from its increased threat generation.

Depending on the environment where you are tanking (guild raid, puggroup, 5-man dungeon, etc.), you may find yourself having to literallyfight against DPS players in reaching the boss first.

This may be due to the desire (or sometimes, the necessity) to maximizedamage done to the boss, or it may be due to impatience and lack ofconsideration. In any case, you should always take the initiative and beaggressive in engaging the encounter.

In addition to the normal way in which you will find yourself gainingaggro (pulling the boss), you will often encounter situations where newenemies, generally adds, enter the fight while it is in progress.

Good knowledge of the encounter is crucial, because it is important to knowwhen and where the adds will appear, especially if you want to useground-based threat abilities.

You also have to pay special attention to healer aggro, when picking upadds. Indeed, it is quite likely that, as healers are constantly castingspells, they will take aggro of the newly spawned adds before you evenhave a chance to react. You must prepare for this situation, be in a goodposition, and not hesitate to taunt the adds to you.

Generally, practice over successive attempts will allow you to gaininvaluable experience as to which way is best to pick up the adds in aparticular fight.

Most tanking classes have some kind of offensive cooldown. Sometimes, thesereduce the cooldown or resource cost of some abilities, while other times theysimply increase damage done.

It is a natural reaction to think that, as a tank, you will focus onusing defensive cooldowns. However, in order to be truly successful inmanaging threat, especially in crucial moments of the encounter (such asthe pull), it is important to use your offensive cooldowns as well.

There are times when maintaining aggro can be difficult, such as when youare severely under-geared compared to DPS players, when you have to switch offthe target in order to pick up a different one, or when encounter designgrants increased damage done to DPS players, but not to tanks.

In any case, the absolute best way to ensure that you never lose aggroover a longer period of time is to know your ability priority. It isessential to understand which abilities must be used on cooldown,and what other threat-generating abilities to fill gaps with. Proper knowledgeof your abilities will, in most cases, guarantee that you do not loseaggro.

Tab targeting is a technique which involves using the TAB key (the defaultkey for automatic targeting) to quickly switch between multiple targets. Itis very useful when you are tanking multiple targets (adds, for example) andall of your usual AoE abilities are on cooldown or are provinginsufficient.

Essentially, you want to cycle through all of the targets by using theTAB key (you can do it manually, as well, though it is less efficient) andapply single target threat-generating abilities on each individual add. Forbest results, check Omen to see if there are any targets on which you havea large threat lead, and do not bother attacking those.

There are two situations when you will need to regain aggro of a mob:when you have lost aggro, unintentionally, to DPS players or another tank,and when you are engaged in a tank-switching rotation. While taunting a straymob on which you have lost aggro is rather simple, a few notes arein order regarding tank switching. First, however, you must understand exactlyhow to best use your taunt.

Taunting a mob has two effects:

1. It forces the mob to attack the player who taunted it, for 3 seconds.
2. It grants the player who taunted it an amount of threat equal to that ofthe player who had aggro on the mob at the time of the taunt.
3. It increases the threat generation of the taunting player for the same3-second duration.

The duration that the mob attacks the taunting player for is subject todiminishing returns. Subsequent taunts, within a 15 second window, will reducethe duration of the fixate and threat increase window until the spelleventually has no effect. Note that all taunts share the same diminishingreturns, so a Warrior's taunt will cause the Paladin off-tank's taunts to havediminished effects, for example.

You can use taunt pro-actively as well. Taunting a mob you currently haveaggro on can be a good way to make sure the target will stick to you for theduration of the taunt, or to help you keep your threat high and maintain aggroif your co-tank or DPS are catching up in threat.

Taunt's cooldown is relatively low, and it is a key part of any tank'stoolkit, so do not be afraid to use it. While you may get the idea thathaving to taunt off people is "shameful", as a reflection of your abilityto maintain aggro, this could not be farther from the truth. A good tank is onewho makes liberal and efficient use of taunt.

Keep in mind that simply taunting is not enough to maintain threat; if you donot subsequently attack the mob you just taunted, it will simply return toattacking the player who initially had aggro after the fixate has ended.

Finally, due to the diminishing returns on taunt, it should not be usedas part of your "rotation". Rather, taunt should be saved for when it isactually needed.

There are a great many encounters in the game which require two (or more)tanks to taunt the boss off of each other at specific intervals of time,usually due to some debuffs applied to the tanks.

While the practice itself is not overly complicated, we would like to makethree mentions.

1. Understand exactly why you are taunting the boss, why it is beingtaunted off you, and what the correct timing for it is. Boss mods usuallyalert you as to the timing, but you must make sure that you can monitor yourfellow tanks' debuffs.
2. Time one or more powerful threat-generating abilities to land immediatelyafter your taunt lands, to ensure that you do not lose aggro aftertaunting.
3. When you have been taunted off of, stop using powerful threat-generatingabilities for a sensible amount of time (a few seconds), in order to help theother tank stabilize their aggro. Depending on various circ*mstances, you mayeven need to stop auto-attacking.

Additionally, it is very important to observe the correct position andfacing of the boss before you taunt it. Many bosses have a front-facing cleaveability which will hit anyone in front of them, and some bosses (like manyDragons) have rear-facing cleaves as well. The best thing to do is toposition yourself exactly in the same place as the tank who currentlyhas aggro, before you taunt, so that the boss does not move at all.

Lastly, it's important that you position yourself behind the boss when youare not tanking it. This ensures that you do not receive damage from breath orcleaving type attacks that the boss may perform. Keep in mind, however, thatsome encounters specifically require both tanks to be in front of the boss.

Instinctively, it feels as though your survival, as a tank, is all in thehands of your healers, but this could not be farther from the truth. Yes, withincompetent healers, you will die, and there is little you can do to saveyourself. However, even excellent healers will fail to keep you alive if youdo not make proper use of the tools at your disposal.

This section will be rather brief, but there are a few important mentionswe feel need to be made.

Each tanking class has various active survival and mitigation tools attheir disposal. These take the form of abilities with low or no cooldown, whichoffer great benefits but are also rather expensive. You must learn to makeconstant (and proper) use of these abilities in your rotation, otherwise youwill be practically unhealable.

Going into depth about these abilities is beyond the scope of this guide,so we recommend that you read our class-specific tanking guides.

Every tanking class has at least a few defensive/survival cooldowns. Youneed to be familiar with what they are, how they work and, very importantly,you must have them bound to accessible keys. Furthermore, you should keepin mind that you have other survival tools at your disposal outside of themajor cooldowns, such as trinket on-use effects or minor cooldowns.

• Prevention is better than remedy. Unless there is a specific event in theencounter which you need to save cooldowns for, use them freely, as manytimes as possible during the fight.
• Damage reduction cooldowns should always be used proactively. Do not botherusing them when you notice you are on 5% health, since it will already be toolate by then. Use them when you anticipate a period of high damage, or whenyour healers are going to be unable to heal you.
• Health increasing and healing cooldowns can be used both proactively andreactively, though if given the choice, you should try to save them for momentswhen your health is suddenly very low.
• As much as possible, do not stack cooldowns. As a rule, if you needto use all of your cooldowns at once to survive a fight mechanic, chances areyou are not intended to survive it in the first place.
• Be aware of the external tools available to you, specifically healerdefensive cooldowns. You can and should coordinate with your healers to make useof these abilities whenever you are unable to ensure your own survival.

Having a good understanding of the encounter mechanics and of your raid'sstrategy will help tremendously in allowing you to time your cooldowns toperfection. Practice makes perfect.

Additionally, good communication with your healers is invaluable. Everythingmay appear to be fine, but a healer disconnecting, or being targeted by aboss ability which requires them to move are important events that justifythe use of a cooldown.

In addition to not standing in any harmful ground effects — which issomething that every raider should be aware of — and facing bosses andenemies in such a way that your raid is not in danger of being cleaved, there isanother absolutely key piece of advice for every tank out there: never everhave your back to a mob which is attacking you. This is because when yourback is turned to an attacking mob, you are unable to dodge, parry, or block itsattacks and will therefore be taking more damage than necessary.

Instead, what you should do instead is strafe sideways. If your side isturned to the attacking mob, you continue to parry, dodge and block attacks, andwhat's more, you maintain your normal run speed.

This is slightly tricky to master right away, but you can always find a lowlevel mob (so it doesn't kill you), aggro it and run away from it. This willallow you to practice the exact angle you need to be facing. Just check tosee if you are registering any dodges or parries, as this will be an indicationthat you are facing the correct way.

Finally, you should always make sure that you do not leave line of sightof your healers, as this is a sure way to get yourself killed. While it is lessof a problem in raids (as most rooms do not have obstacles), it can happeneasily in dungeons.

In case the target you are tanking needs to be moved a short distancebackwards (that is to say, in the direction that you are facing), you canemploy a technique known as pushing. To do this, simple step forwarduntil you enter the target's hitbox. This will cause them to adjust to yourposition, and in most cases this means that they will step back a very shortdistance, and face you again.

The alternative to this is to drag the target to the desired location, butin the process of doing so, you need to move a lot more, and the target isvery likely to turn around for extended periods of time, making it much lessdesirable than pushing.

We would like to note that some mobs, due to the size of their hitbox, arenot very receptive to this technique.

Holding aggro and not dying are essential aspects of being a great tank, butto move to the next level, you have to understand how each and every oneof your actions impact the rest of your raid.

There are many encounters which require you, as the tank, to position ormove the boss. Doing so is, generally, a requirement to completing theencounter successfully, but simply knowing when and where the boss needs tobe moved is not all there is to it.

Understand that melee DPS players must be within melee range of the boss toperform their attacks. Whenever you move the boss, you should aim to move asefficiently and as little as possible. The less you move the boss, the lessmelee DPS players will have to move to follow it, and the more DPS they will beable to do.

Additionally, understand that many melee DPS specs gain DPS by attackingtheir targets from behind. This has two implications.

• You must keep the boss facing the same way, as much as possible, so thatDPS players do not suddenly find that they have to reposition themselves.
• You must make sure that there are no fire patches or other void zonesbehind the boss, making it impossible for melee DPS to stand there.

Indeed, while it takes a good tank to know when to move the boss fromplace to place, it takes an excellent tank to move him in the way which ismost efficient for your DPS players.

Finally, keep in mind that, even after you are generating enough threat tomaintain aggro, and you are surviving the encounter, you can still improveyour own performance. Any extra DPS that you do as a tank will be added to yourraid's DPS and will, even if in just a small part, help you kill the bossfaster. Some gains to your personal DPS come at the expense of yoursurvivability; knowing how and when to make these trade-offs is part of beinga great tank.

An often underrated quality of a great tank is the ability to be consistent.This is true of all roles, but it is especially important for tanks to playconsistently. Managing your movement, your survivability, and your threat in apredictable and consistent fashion enables the rest of your raid to furtheroptimize their own specific roles over repeated pulls of a boss. Here are a fewexamples of how playing consistently benefits your raid.

• Using your mitigation and defensive cooldowns in the same manner every pull— provided they are being used effectively in the first place and notputting you at unnecessary risk — assists your healers in understandingthe pattern of incoming damage and enabling them to plan their own cooldownsaround that pattern. If your mitigation is inconsistent, you force your healersto react to your unpredictable health bar and potentially spend more mana, or becaught off-guard by a sudden spike in damage that could kill you.
• Moving the boss predictably each pull — again, provided the movementis already efficient and does not interfere with the raid's ability to executetheir strategy — allows melee and ranged DPS players alike to know inadvance where the boss will be at any given time, and plan their own movementaccordingly. If you move the boss inconsistently or unpredictably, your DPS willhave to chase the boss reactively and lose DPS in the process.

As the tank, whether you desire it or not, you are in a unique position ofcontrol over your group. Healers and DPS players may be the assignedleaders, or they may wish to take charge, but at the end of the day, they areunable to do anything without you.

Due to this, it is often preferred that a tanksimply be the leader, as this simplifies matters greatly. Furthermore, becausetanking attracts leaders, it then becomes an expected quality of all tanksto lead their groups.

So, exactly what qualities should a tank have, in terms of leadership? Theyshould be confident, they should not be shy to speak up, they should have a planfor their group (which, incidentally, should also be the correct thing to do,hence why knowing the encounter mechanics is important), and they should havethe vigor to execute that plan.

Tanks have a lot of responsibility, as a tanking mistake is going tolead to a wipe a lot more often than a DPS or healer one would. For thisreason, tanks are most likely to receive criticism. But, because, as we said,tanking is all about confidence, you cannot let it get to you! If you didindeed make a mistake, then learn from it and apologize, but do not let itimpede your drive.

This concludes the tanking guide. If you have followed us all the way to theend, you now know exactly what a great tank is, and what you need to do toachieve that.

You must understand, however, that tanking, more than any other role inthe game, is all about repeated practice. Only when you have done somethingmany times will you be so confident as to do it effortlessly, consistently, andquickly. So, if you are wondering how you can start, then remember that youcannot practice tanking on a training dummy. There are a few steps you canfollow.

1. Set up your user interface, add-ons and keybinds, and do a few highlevel quests to familiarize yourself with your new settings.
2. Look up the tactics for the bosses (and trash pulls, if possible) ofa specific heroic dungeon, and just go and do it! You can do it with friendsor guild members, for added support, but the anonymity granted by the DungeonFinder may suit you better.
3. Be polite and considerate with your fellow party members, but do notlet them get to you, regardless of what they may say.

If any of this seems daunting, fear not, and remember that the best qualityof a great tank is confidence! Remember that we have all lost aggro,accidentally pulled in DPS gear, or fallen off of platforms.

• 18 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
• 20 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
• 07 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
• 05 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
• 04 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
• 22 Oct. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight prepatch.
• 07 Dec. 2020: Reviewed for Shadowlands release.
• 15 Apr. 2020: Fixed broken Omen link.
• 25 Sep. 2018: Updated the guide to bring it in line with the current state of the game.
• 29 Jan. 2018: Added a note about active mitigation checks some bosses in Legion have.
• 23 Jul. 2016: Updated the guide to bring it in line with the current state of the game.
• 28 Aug. 2015: Updated the link to the Brazilian Portuguese translation.
• 05 Apr. 2015: Updated the URLs for Omen Threat Meter and Threat Plates.
• 27 Oct. 2014: Made a few updates to account for the fact that tank abilities cannot be parried anymore, and also made some updates to the taunting sections.

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