Comprehensive Warrior Raid Tanking Guide

[tordana]

Information on Molinar has been added, with attached disclaimer. My guild has reached 20% but hasn't scored a kill yet.

[Valthirus]

Lol. I thought your name was just a coincidence. I remember you from PM on E. Malibuphor was a cool guy. XD

I was a R11 Hunter in DOTG (Defenders of the Greyflood).

[tordana]

Lol. I thought your name was just a coincidence. I remember you from PM on E. Malibuphor was a cool guy. XD

I was a R11 Hunter in DOTG (Defenders of the Greyflood).

I KNEW I recognized your name from somewhere. LOL. I was in DotG for like six months, during the DN progression period. Joined Preying Mantis after that. Also played the warg Chenobyl which most people on the server knew early on in the game.

[Valthirus]

I KNEW I recognized your name from somewhere. LOL. I was in DotG for like six months, during the DN progression period. Joined Preying Mantis after that. Also played the warg Chenobyl which most people on the server knew early on in the game.

I still got a lifetime in LOTRO, hehe... I might one day PVP again (if TERA/GW2 take too long to come out). Love the raiding in Rift tho after LOTRO.

[Jaxxer]

Tordana, much of your guide and updates feature WL threat-generating builds. Any thoughts on the initial 1.6 tanking info? It's very preliminary, but I suspect that Reaver will be once again quite viable, if the overall plan stays as is. Done any PTS testing?

[tordana]

Tordana, much of your guide and updates feature WL threat-generating builds. Any thoughts on the initial 1.6 tanking info? It's very preliminary, but I suspect that Reaver will be once again quite viable, if the overall plan stays as is. Done any PTS testing?

I could get onto PTS and test new builds, but I'm choosing not to waste my time until the changes get less preliminary. I'm 95% sure that the numbers on PTS will be changed significantly before going live.

With that said, my recommended builds in this guide will definitely be updated once 1.6 drops and we have the complete picture of the changes. Based on my initial impressions, 51VK/9 Pal/6 Reaver or 51VK/10 Pal/5 WL will replace the current 51VK/9 Pal/6 WL and other builds involving Reaver such as a 26 Pal/26 Reaver/10 WL will probably be useful. Keep in mind that with Spotter's gone to other classes, our most useful builds in terms of raid buffs will be those containing 26 Reaver which removes the need for a Beastmaster in the raid. Unsure as of yet if the mitigation in a 26 reaver will be worth it though.

[Unicornpower]

If you want some help I can write short guides for the upper floor bosses and akylios. If not thats cool too, I don't mean to hijack your thread.

[Cromagis]

Don't forget the write up guide for 1.6: Find another tank for matron. Or have 10000% block chance.

[Methadras]

Joloral Ragetide
Use: 51 VK spec (main tank), Warlord Hybrid spec (off tank). As a main tank, pull the boss to the back of room to start and slowly pull clockwise around the edge staying 180 degrees away from your off tank. Let the off tank lead the movement -- when you see him move you move. As the off tank, pull the add to where you enter the room and wait for the first seacap spawn. After it run 120 degrees clockwise for the second seacap spawn, then again for the third. Watch for extra large adds to spawn and pick them up. Use Commands when appropriate.

The best way to tank this boss is to pull him into the stairwell that the players start in and gets blocked off. Have the tank put his back against the barrier in the corner and tank him there. Then pull the add to the center of the bottom of the stairs. This effectively keeps the seacaps to migrate to the add and you don't have to kite him all around the room in the hopes of picking of the seacaps. Then when the second add pops out, dps the first add down right there at the bottom of the center of the stairwell. Rinse and repeat.

[Bloodbourne]

Alsbeth the Discordant
Use: 51 VK spec (any tank). Use 3 tanks for this encounter. This fight is fairly complicated to tank so I'll break it down by phase.

Phase 1: Ground 1. Tank #1 on boss. Tanks #2 and #3 on adds, using Rift Summon to bring any casters into the boss. All three tanks should be standing in the same spot to prevent cleaves facing every direction.
Phase 2: Air 1. Tanks split to 3 different circles. Tank #1 to Black add circle, Tank #2 to White add circle, Tank #3 to Grey add circle. Pick up your add if it spawns and any wisps that float near you. The two tanks without big adds should grab any of the add trios that spawn in the middle during this phase as well as any loose wisps and group everything up in the middle for later AoE. Tank #3 remember to interrupt your add's casts!
Phase 3: Air-->Ground Transition 1. Tank #2 should pick up the boss when she lands, Tanks #1 and #3 on any adds. Once stacks of debuff drop off of Tank #1, #1 picks up the boss again and #2 switches back to adds.
Phase 4 to ?: Repeat 1-3 as many times as required to get the boss to 20%.
Phase X: Once she full heals, Tank #2 should pick up the boss. Tank #1 and #2 stay in front, Tank #3 move BEHIND the boss (first time tanks should be split up at all during ground phases). Tank #3 grab all wisp adds -- have your raid run to #3 if they get any on them. Tank #3 should be spamming 1-point Spotter's constantly. Tanks #1 and #2 switch aggro on the boss periodically to keep stacks low. All three watch out for the AoE under her -- it will one-shot tanks if you get hit. Move out as the cast bar nears completion then come back in.

That's a bit much for such an easy fight...
Use a magic mitgation spec, set one OT on adds, and have a rogue tank for shard running. Tank alsbeth 100% of the time, no tank swapping. The fight is a joke. Use Sergeants Order/Rift Summon to get caster adds in the center. Pick up either the black or white ghost (I do rogue tank - Black MT(me) - White OT - Grey). AoE taunt/Use Calls to pick up the wisps. If its your first time, and you dont 100% trust your healers, dont try to pick up any adds, just let you OT do it. You should never be in danger of dying, if spec'd correctly.

My Magic mitigation spec

[Bloodbourne]

As an added note, if you use a death resist sigil/enchants/vial, this fight really becomes trivial for a warrior. I usually have 115 Death resist for this, without any of these.

[Bloodbourne]

Thalguur
Use: Paladin Hybrid spec (main tank), Warlord Hybrid spec (off tank). As the main tank, simply tank and spank the boss picking up crystals when appropriate. As the off tank, be sure to grab all adds each phase and hold them until the player with the shovel gets rid of them. Ragestorm and Spotter's Order are your friends. Use Commands when appropriate. Don't use an OT, tank the ghosts until they're buried (we use our bard for this).



Oracle Aleria
Use: 51 VK spec (either tank). As either tank, just spank your assigned werewolf. It IS possible for the tank to be called out of the room in this encounter. Save your cooldowns for if this happens, you will be out of range of your healers with the boss attacking you for a few seconds. One Aleria herself activates the two tanks can switch when one of them gets the incoming healing debuff, but most guilds just ignore this debuff altogether. Use a magic mitigation spec for the one wolf, or Paladin Hybrid for the melee wolf + Oracle.

Prince Hylas
Use: 51 VK spec (main tank), Warlord hybrid (off tank). If your guild is new to this encounter I recommend using 4 tanks for this encounter, but reduce to 3 as soon as you can. 2 tanks is doable but not necessary by any means. As the main tank, just dodge the boss's AoE casts. If you are assigned to the reborn Duke, make sure to hold aggro while kiting out of purple goo on the ground. As any tank make sure to keep the boss and any adds well away from each other. Off-tanks should be assigned one to wolves and one to trees for the second phase of the fight. You only ever need two tanks for this fight, as all DPS should be on the adds(duke, inf, oracle) when they spawn. During the last stage the OT picks up all wolves and trees and drags them to the far end of the room away from Prince.


Plutonus the Immortal
Use: 51 VK spec. Start the fight by backing up towards one of the pillars around the edge of the arena (but not TO it!). Wait for two Ciphers to go off (it's the only thing that damages your raid... just watch the HP bars to catch the second one), then put your back up to a pillar. Singularity is useful now to reduce some spike damage. Once he breaks the pillar, move towards another, wait for two ciphers, blow it up. Repeat until you're approaching 50% (this should take 3 or maybe 4 pillars), then move the boss to the middle of the arena. You should move him once in preparation for 50% phase, then wait in the same spot through the 40% and 30% transitions, then move for a second time to your final location prior to the 20% and 10% transitions. This will maximize your raid DPS by not having to reposition much. I prefer a magic mitigation spec for this fight as RNG can dictate a Cypher/clap combo on the tank and if your healers aren't 100% on the ball or if you dont have the HP, you will get one shot.


Soulrender Zilas
Use: Paladin Hybrid spec. I solo tank this boss - many guilds use two but I find it unnecessary. This boss is definitely doable with one tank and you get a nice raid DPS boost from the extra player you free up. It's certainly challenging, but incredibly fun. Tank the boss so its back is to the add path leading in (so you face the adds as they come in). With force taunts being off cooldown after 1.5 patch, it's simple to pick up adds that are running in. Keep your camera zoomed out as far as possible and just click on anything that comes in followed by a force taunt to grab it. The only tricky spot is when a butcher and imp come in at the exact same time from opposite sides -- prioritize picking up the butcher first. The imp doesn't do much damage so if it gets a hit or two off on a raid member before you can grab it (either from residual Spotter's aggro or a second force taunt after 8 seconds) it's no big deal. On laser beam phases, keep an eye on the road coming in to see if any adds will arrive during the phase. If they do, just position yourself so you're in range to grab them as they come. Spam Ragestorm and Spotter's while running to hold aggro on any adds chasing you. Note that the beam takes about 10 seconds to complete a full rotation and you can run faster than it with bard speed buff up. That means if you are running right behind the beam and see an add coming you can sit in one place for 7-8 seconds, grab the add, build some aggro, and start running again before the beam catches back up to you. As the beam dissipates move to your tanking spot and wait for the skeletons to run up from behind you. This part can be tricky, but in order to minimize damage coming from you at this point, WAIT until the skeletons have run PAST you and then throw Spotter's immediately. If done properly all the skeletons will be in front of you, lined up nicely with the boss/butchers/imps so you can block all incoming attacks and your melee DPS can cleave it all. Stay cool and don't screw up during this fight -- if you're solo tanking one mistake can wipe your raid pretty easily. If you're unsure about your skills there's always the safety net of using a second tank for adds (of course your DPS will need to be higher to compensate).
This is 100% accurate and nearly identical to what I do on this. Kudos.

I don't use 51VK, ever. I see you use it on nearly every encounter. I would definitely toy with some other specs to help out for mitigation.

Paladin Hybrid is solid for any physical fight, sometimes moreso than 51VK, and in general far more threat. It also allows for added 3pt Spotters Order usage with Martial Shield (keep it rolling on adds and boss) while still maintaining your other calls.

21 Reaver spec for Magic Mitigation will reduce your reliance on CDs on most magic fights.

32 Warlord is by no means a chump and can be used to MT Physical encounters. Though I still recommend going for highest mitigation when learning new fights.

[tordana]

If you want some help I can write short guides for the upper floor bosses and akylios. If not thats cool too, I don't mean to hijack your thread.

If you want to write something up for the bosses I'm missing and PM it to me or post it I'll add it in with credit to you.

@Methadras: Nice tip, I'm adding that in.

@Bloodbourne: Thanks for your feedback. I'm not in 100% agreement with you on everything, but always good to get other viewpoints. Going encounter by encounter:

Alsbeth: You can get by without tank swapping but it'll make the damage quite heavy near the end of the fight, unless that debuff on the tank is cleanseable and I never noticed. Death resist obviously is useful.

Thalguur: That works and I've done it like that but if your tank doesn't overgear the content you'll get hit extremely hard in later phases with 4-5 adds on you. Using a second makes life easier on your healers, though it does obviously slow down the fight. An argument could be made for trading the second tank for an extra -icar or chloro hybrid, though.

Aleria: A full reaver/paladin/VK hybrid obviously works better mitigation-wise for tanking the ranged wolf, but you also then lose Spotter's and slow down that part of the fight. The entire fight is such a joke that I'd rather get it done faster. I prefer 51VK to a Paladin hybrid for tanking the melee wolf because you get the extra cooldowns if you're called outside in the first half of the fight (FoF does work because of the steady AoE magic ticks the whole raid takes), but obviously either works.

Hylas: Easily doable with two tanks if you're raiding Hammerknell. For a progression guild without any relics, not so much. Killing each add before the next spawns requires upwards of 20k raid DPS I believe, and if you get two at once (especially if one of those is Aleria) you can get insurmountable raid damage for undergeared healers. I was aiming this whole guide at progression, not farm status, because at that point you shouldn't be needing a guide.

Plutonus: Cipher/Clap shouldn't kill you in 51VK even if undergeared, as long as you have a modicum of Death resist. Also going into a hybrid loses the cooldowns to pop when you're breaking crystals, which in my experience CAN one-shot you if you get bad RNG (e.g. if you have to stand in a lightning line to break the crystal, he breaks it and then immediately starts channeling his shield, which is his highest damaging ability outside of ciphers you should be timing around).

Zilas: Thanks.

As to general specs, I've recently started using a Paladin hybrid on Murdantix and Vladmal as well as what I listed in my original post. It's definitely a useful one, but my opinion is that if unsure go with 51VK as a default spec. Paladin scales better with gear than 51VK also -- with my block rating up over 80% and sitting around 23k armor in the Paladin hybrid it's generally higher physical mitigation on average. But if you're not quite as well geared, those shots you don't block hurt a lot more than if you were in a 51VK. 32WL just loses too much mitigation for me to consider bringing along for main tanking. I'm sure I could tank everything in GSB/RoS with it just fine, but the only benefit of a 32WL over my 26 pal/20VK/18WL is picking up Aid Command and Rallying Command. While useful, not enough to justify the build in my opinion (except for off tanking duties like I've talked about).

[Bloodbourne]

Alsbeth: You can get by without tank swapping but it'll make the damage quite heavy near the end of the fight, unless that debuff on the tank is cleanseable and I never noticed. Death resist obviously is useful.

**Mitigation spec is pure mitigation and not really gear based so it will be the best option overall for new tanks to the encounter**

Hylas: Easily doable with two tanks if you're raiding Hammerknell. For a progression guild without any relics, not so much. Killing each add before the next spawns requires upwards of 20k raid DPS I believe, and if you get two at once (especially if one of those is Aleria) you can get insurmountable raid damage for undergeared healers. I was aiming this whole guide at progression, not farm status, because at that point you shouldn't be needing a guide.

**Our first time in we used just 2 tanks, and had never heard of anyone using more than 2**

Plutonus: Cipher/Clap shouldn't kill you in 51VK even if undergeared, as long as you have a modicum of Death resist. Also going into a hybrid loses the cooldowns to pop when you're breaking crystals, which in my experience CAN one-shot you if you get bad RNG (e.g. if you have to stand in a lightning line to break the crystal, he breaks it and then immediately starts channeling his shield, which is his highest damaging ability outside of ciphers you should be timing around).

**Again, with the magic mitigation spec breaking crystals is a moot point. Make sure you're stopping DPS at 54% before you break the last icon**

Zilas: Thanks.

*You're welcome

The only other thought I'd have, is that your guide is a little underwhelming. Explanations can be a bit short and uninformative at times. Others you go into great detail. Overall 8/10.

[Teflondon]

Great guide, I enjoyed all the info in here. Quick question for you tank pros, if you HAD to take one spec for the time being what one would you take? I'm currently doing the pvp grind and have 2 pvp spec's. One solo spec and one Raid/instance dps spec leaving me only one slot currently(please please give us a 6th slot, i don't care if it's several hundred$) My gear level is moderate I'd say with mostly all 10 man tank gear drops, my source machine is Not filled and only has 2 good essences the rest being the stillmoor bought ones :P I use a 32 warlord general purpose offtank spec currently but looking for something new. I'm only really concerned with tanking the odd t2 to help out, mDD, some 10 man content when somebody doesn't show up or raid rifts etc.

Gah, i really need two lol. Soon I hope!