Warrior Tanking 101

If you want to start tanking Stormtalon at Level 20, this build will get it done. You'll find tanking gets a bit easier at level 30, but it can be done before hand, with a bit more attention to threat. A few starter tips:

First thing, be sure that when you are in tanking mode, you run the proper Stance. Running Onslaught wont get you enough threat to scare a kitten, much less these grimy Pell in Stormtalon. Secondly, we all want to push out as much damage as we can, but you're job as tank is to keep the mobs off your glass cannons. I recommend running ThreatMeter addon, at least to start out, to get an idea of how threat works, numberwise. Once you get a good feel for it, you can disable or hide it. You should see yourself dominating the top of the chart. Occasionally DPS procs will cause them to spike on you, that's when you'll want to Taunt to get the mob's attention back.

Additionally, if you're new to MMO's or new to the concept of Tanking, you'll need to develop or employ as sense of awareness. Watch for patrol mobs. If you have a pat likely to cross back into your battle zone during another mob fight, then think ahead, Taunt and kill the pat first, then take the other mob. Be aware of moving around too much, or your party memebers moving too much. If they pull another mob be ready to taunt it and pick it up. ALWAYS assume that a mob cleaves. Even if they don't, it's best to act as if they do. Keep them tuned away from your group members. Squishy DPS won't hold up to cleaves very long.

This build will evolve as your progress your levels. But to start out, here's the break down.

Attack/Threat Abilities

This is your spam button, it's lowest in priority, but when everything else is on cooldown, always be spamming this.

This is next up on the priority chain. It will keep your threat buffed up, and will keep Tech resistance down on the mobs once you get it to Tier 4.

This is top on priority, always have one of these fields down.

After throwing down the Polarity Field, burn off one of these. More Tech damage, more threat.

This is your taunt, don't use it unless you get someone else spiking in threat. It might be handy to lead off a fight with it though, just to start off your threat level strong. You shouldn't need it routinely though, and quite honestly, as you level a bit more, you'll probably be fine just dropping this altogether.

Crowd Control


Especially Stormtalon, you'll need 2 interrupts, you have some mobs in there that MUST be interrupted, and they carry 2 armors, so you'll need 3 interrupts to hit them. Don't bank on having 2 competent enought people in a PUG to hit their interrupts, so carry 2, and use them both. However, if you run with the same group, guildies or whatever, and they all know what they're doing, you could drop one of these in favor of something else.

Rotation
(Optional) - start out with to get some snap aggro.
twice to get some Kinetic energy
to set up Tech vulnerability on the mob (this wont work until Tier 4, but get used to this rotation)



Hit and to interrupt when needed.

Hit if/when needed.

AMPS
As far as stat priority, I'm still a bit unsettled as to my final opinion, but here's kinda where I sit, and explains my AMP placement. First of all, if you can't hit you're useless, so in my estimation, Strikethrough is most important, if you're having your attacks deflected alot, it's going to put a damper on your threat generation. As for any stat though, you only need to stack it so much. Then there's your own deflect ratings, keep 'em mad but don't let em hit you, that's a good recipe for a tank, reminiscent of the Druid dodge tanks in the [other game]. Shield capacity and support power last of all.

So at level 20 you have 15 points. For that stat points
3 in Strikethrough
2 in Deflect Rating
2 in Deflect Critical
2 in Shield Capacity
2 in Support Power

That leaves you with 4 points to grab a Tier 2 AMP. I've gone with Full Force, to help with threat generation. If you see you're overcompensated in threat, you could drop this, and go with Full Defense to improve your mitigation. Or, I wouldn't recommend it, but you could max out the other Tier 1 stat trees, and wait 4 more levels to grab a Tier 2. I think you need to take either Full Force or Full Defense now though.

Moving Forward
So obviously you won't be 20 for long. So how should this build grow? I'll be updating this as I progress and form some more solid opinions as I experiment. At 21 you can consider dropping your Taunt if you're threat generation stays solid, and pick up Defense Grid, and make the healer's job a bit easier. I plan to get Jolt to Tier 4 before I buff the other abilities anymore, so I can pick up the
Expose buff. Upgrading gear, just keep your stat priority in mind.

This is definitely a WIP build, and any feedback or suggestions, feel free to lay 'em down. Most of all, ENJOY YOUR GAMEPLAY! You have a job already!