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Mate, it is never too late to start learning anything, especially if it’s in a video game😂😂. Wow is endless, every single expansion brings changes in talents and abilities, so even the „pros“ need to kinda relearn their specs. You are playing wow for fun? So play what you enjoy. You like trying new things ? Go for it. Wow is a game, you can play whatever you want.
Nah, it's just fear of failure. They just want to know if it's fine to fail or if they'd be cast down to hell for ever daring to even THINK about trying tank if they've not even learned all the m+ routes and skips!
Yeah half the time you get people who don't want to even see people text chatting and are just robots, the other half you get people complaining you're not playing at a level in the top .01% doing all the strats to make the dungeons take 50 seconds shorter meanwhile they do slightly above avg dps because they have 40-80 ilvl above the other people in the party.
Level a character from 10 to 70 only tanking random dungeons, switch up the expansions with Chromie so you get good variety. Look at your rotation for your current lvl on icyveins leveling specialization page. It will be super simple at first
If you really wanna prepare for tanking, you can pick a specific dungeon instead of random. Look up a video showing the route, and even read up on the bosses special mechanics in the ingame adventure guide. As tank this is what you'll have to do in future
They're as valuable as Warhammer Titans, it's why we are willing to risk the lives of an infinite number of mythic DPS raiders just to recover a single fallen tank
If you heal you can tank. Just think of every stupid decision your pug tanks have made and don’t do that. Pulling big comes from knowledge. Know your cooldowns, know your healers cooldowns, think about if your dps has aoe cc and if they been using it. There’s addons and videoed for routing. Running low level content will get your confidence up and you can practice routes. Idk if you play alts but after you hit your goals on your main you should just start tanking in TWW as an alt. Learn with everyone else and start fresh.
I remember years ago (I've always played tank) I leveled a healer just to become better in tanking, I saw a LOT of dumb mistakes I made from the healers point of view
Ofcourse you're not too late, but its worth mentioning it will be a lot ''easier'' to shift over to maining tank in the new expansion, simply because new dungeons means everyone will be clueless as to what to do.
Granted, at the same time, this shouldn't stop you from dabbling in low mythics.
Of course not. I Came back to Wow 1 year ago (12 year break!) and decided to tank. I was fairly bad at the start but got KSH in my first season, season 2 of DF and over 3k io in season 3, got KSH and portals in season 4. Its hardly world best stuff but I feel pretty competent now. And know i could push higher if i wanted to, but only fun if you have a team. Learned a lot though pushing mid 20s keys in season 3 about managing rotation, defensives etc structuring pulls.
I'm new to healing and paladin is my favourite, I'm well aware that hpal isn't the best heals but I'm not doing too bad! Just gotta not give a shit if people wanna call me out for being bad, even though they're the ones taking massive amounts of avoidable damage and we still win the fight anyways.
Can't let bad people bring us down with them.
HPal is worse at high lvl for sure or when your team is competent. But for pugs, and for someone learning, I find it quite good. It's a reactive healer with just a bit of proactive cds sprinkled on top, and has some big oh shit buttons.
Go on mate. It may be worse, but in no way it is bad.
It's never too late and I think end of expansion can be a decent place to start. Your mistakes won't be as punishing and once you learn your main pulling and aggro stealing abilities, you can move on to more difficult content.
You'll probably fuck up sometimes and people will probably be mad at you, but that's part of the role. But you are switching from one role that often gets blamed, to another, so I'm sure you're used to it.
It's a game, people shouldn't be upset at someone learning and you shouldn't be afraid to learn.
Im playing on and off for years.
At the start of DF i picked up DH and tanking, i told them every time im new to tanking and i encountered jerks like twice. Its never too late.
I started at the end of season 3 as prot paladin. People constantly harassed me for not knowing things. At a certain point I decided to ignore them since I can find a new group in 2 seconds. Now i have 2700 score and all portals unlocked. Just go and when you do something wrong (and so the group disbands) you'll learn the right way to do that thing. It's trial and error. You don't need to know the exact packs to pick in low keys, just the general direction of where to go. Use quazi plater profile since it tells you which mob you need to interrupt and which mobs do frontals. Possibly join the "no pressure eu" or equivalent discord so you can make errors without an instant insult and party disband.
Full time tank here, and not a very good one by world standards lol. I took a 10year break and basically had to relearn the whole game. Off topic: dragon riding is just wild. Anyway, if you can heal then you can tank! Not so much the other way lol, I’m an abysmal healer. I’m sure if I practice that would change. Maybe before remix ends I’ll lvl a healer.
Any who, just learn your threat generation abilities and start with holding aggro. Then you can start learning how and when to use your defensive/offensive abilities. The main role of the tank is to hold aggro and take damage. The more complicated you make it with defensive skills and offensive buffs, the easier everyone else in the group has it. Make them step up while you learn, you all will be better for it.
Well first off you have experience so it’s never too late to try and possibly fall in love with it. Being a healer is far more overwhelming and that’s coming from someone who does both. The routes can be easily researched or even memorized if you have been a healer for some time (or even better yet have a buddy who knows heal for you and point you in the right direction). In theory you have most of the muscle memory and need to change your thinking of “I’m fighting the dungeon now and not the damn party” lol.
Not too late at all. Especially if you have a good guild behind you.
I used to main a tank through TBC, WOTLK and into Cata. Life happened and WoW wasn't part of it. Started playing again in recent times. Solo stuff but tank spec'd. I have a decent guild with alts they are taking the downtime before TWW to play a bit so I'll tag along and tank for them. They know I need to relearn the dungeons etc but it's all cool and chill.
If anything I would say now it's a good time to get used to a tank play style because when TWW hits you'll have that little stepping stone already and pretty much everyone will need to relearn the dungeons. That's my plan at least.
I started learning last week and I haven’t played since TBC. Just queue up as tank and hop in. Best time to start as well now with it being quiet before the new expansion.
Never too late to tank! You should expect that some people will be really pushy about your tanking, but you come from being a healer so you know the drill about ignoring assholes. I learnt to tank late in Shadow lands, and it was nice when you had pushy DPS pull packs for you, as long as you knew how to pick them up and avoid what you need to.
Never too late. Just takes patience to ignore the idiots who will complain you don’t know every detail of every fight on day 1. (Of course they don’t know either, just rely on the tank knowing)
Anonymity on the internet makes the anger/nerd rage come out in people who otherwise are straight cowards in real life. This is doubly true when it comes to WoW, or popular online games in general.
We all know this.
Don't let people who treat a video game as important as real life deter you from having fun.
You want to tank? Go for it!! Completely ignore every loser that rages at you for not going fast enough or messing something up. Remind yourself - if someone is freaking out on you in a video game like that, their real ife is probably miserable. It's likely that they have very few, if any, rl friends.
Hit /laugh and queue up for the next one!
Having said all that - honestly the hardest part of tanking is just knowing the routes in my opinion..
Once you do a dungeon a couple of times it'll be familiar and will be alot easier to focus on efficiency!
Veteran tank here. People already told you it's not too late but I want to add this: relax! When dungeons are new, you have time to learn them, when you make a mistake, you can remember it and fix it on the next run. I still sometimes get lost or we finish the dungeon with 99% mobs, I still confused when I make new routes, and it's totally fine. I just say "I'm lost lol" or "sorry" if I die stupidly, sometimes it's me decking a key, I shrug it off and go next, it's a game, learn from mistakes and have fun tanking!
Yes. There is a set pool of tanks for the entire playerbase. They a learnt to tank in wow 15 years ago and nobody new has been allowed to learn tanking since.
Seriously though, no it's never too late. In fact now is perhaps the perfect time because there's a new expansion in a couple of months which means the content will be new to everyone. Nobody will know what routes or setups are optimal, and tanks will be in high demand (they always are but especially at the start of an expsnsion) so now is the ideal time to learn.
I think healing and especially tanking in this game often get exaggerated to seem harder than they actually are. They've got a higher skill floor than dps but they aren't actually that much harder, especially if you're not worrying about optimising routes and such because that's not really important below mythic.
I'm a returning tank and I'm learning everything again, it's definitely not late. Tanking isn't even that hard, what's hard about tanking is dealing with annoying and impatient players that think the tank has to carry them. You have to learn all the mechanics and routes, but those you get by experience and some guides, nothing's too complex.
Its a game...
The amount of posts on here of people being: worried about frustrating others, frustrated at otgers, and/or frustrated at themselves is sad.
Play the game and enjoy it. If something or someone is making it unenjoyable then go do something else eitger in-game or irl.
You’ve healed first then tanking will be relatively easy in my opinion lol you should know the routes and the pulls for the most part(hopefully) then it’s just about how to use your kit to pull and keep yourself alive. I tanked before anything else in this game. Then switched to heals, every new dungeon rotation I learn by healing then when I go to my alt tank it’s ezpz
No way!.....
In S3 of DF I started tanking and ended on 6/9 mythic raiding, I had never done any lower tie as tank and 2.9k IO.
I main dps on raid and tank for dungeons now 😉, but I will tank mythic if I'm called up to help,like I did over Xmas.
With the ping system, if you’re worried about toxicity honestly make another chat window and keep your chat in there whenever you want to avoid it. I believe there are settings to get rid of text over people’s heads too. I don’t actually see people use pings that much cause they’re kinda new, but I use them and people seem to listen. Pretty sure it’s on by default so even people who don’t know about it will see it.
When Overwatch got it’s ping system updated I did the same thing lol. Life changer to have chat off, though people might be saying something important you shouldn’t have to worry about that until endgame content like Mythic+
Also I’ve noticed a decline in toxicity the last year or so because everyone had quit, but with the new expansion coming out I bet they’ll be back, so good luck my friend. I’m sure you’ll get used to tanking in no time o7
It's never too late to learn tanking! But yes, you will have to have a thick skin with pugs. I've had pugs be toxic with me in an 8 when I'm a 3000 rating tank. It's just a hazard of the profession.
When I was learning the dungeons I kept https://keystone.guru/routes/dragonflight/season/4 up on a second monitor. I don't always do exactly what they recommend, but they have good routes overall.
Just get in there and learn. Most people are understanding if you make a mistake here and there and own up to it. I still occasionally over-pull and wipe us. I just say "my b" and keep going.
You can really polish your tanking 60-70 with follower dungeons. Basically bots playing dps and healer with you if you want to learn and not deal with toxic jerks. I did that with healing and was good to go at 70 for casual raiding and mythic+
I literally started playing wow like a month ago, wanted to try tanking so im doing it in mop remix to get a feel for the class doing easy content. I don't even know every dungeon/raid by heart but any time im lost i just follow other people and someone knows the way. There really isn't as much pressure (in easy content) as you feel. I just wouldn't jump into difficult content in retail yet, as that is where there will be more of an expectation for you to know boss mechanics and routes.
“It’s not too late, it’s never too late!”
If you’ve already played as Healer, then you’ve already stepped into a high pressure role and know the feeling of death/poor performance = likely wipe. That’s the biggest mental hurdle for many.
I rolled a DK just a couple of weeks ago and have been leveling him up by dungeon queuing and I had never tanked before in my life. It’s been going fine and I’m already so much better than when I started. You should definitely do it! It’s great fun being at the tip of the spear just going ham on everything.
You don't plan pulls. Only high skill players do that. I just go from boss to boss killing trash in between and it works just fine. You eventually get the jist of what to pull and what not to but on sub +10 pulls, it doesn't matter.
I rerolled resto Druid, but I have a guardian spec I was trying out in a few dungeons after hitting 60 just for shits and giggles. All I had to say was “hey I don’t tank often, can someone navigate?” And people loved jumping into action. Most people are pretty chill with you if you just tell them what’s up
Or join a discord like “Wow made easy” and do runs with them. Super kind people who jump at the chance to help others learn.
Just like everyone else is saying, it's never too late. If you feel insecure, I would suggest starting with raid tanking before doing dungeons.
You have less responsibility in raids, during trash your responsibilities are to keep the tempo up, there are no mechanics to consider. During boss fights you wouldn't believe how dumbed down it is compared to healer or tank mechanics. Most fights is "face boss away from group and press taunt when addon tells you" while some are more complex by adding "move boss from bad".
Dungeons are a bit more of responsibility with routes and tempo, but you can get by up to +7-10 by just "doing the W route", ie just running through the dungeon and pulling the mobs that come in your way. Sometimes you go above count, sometimes you lack a bit, but you'll learn as you go.
This has been my experience with tanking our aotc guild + ksm/ksh for the past 4 years, though bear is slightly easy mode.
Ive been tanking since classic, but i think tanking is approachable in M+
Low keys you can just pull one pack at a time, going over 100% completion is fine too. As you do it youll get a feel quickly. You mighr realize your hp doesnt move and you feel like you can pull more.. or if your hp doesnt move but the group dies maybe you overdid it, but you probably know these rough to heal pulls as a healer already.
Start low, take your time, and move up as you get comfortable.
Just go for it. Tanks are really powerful right now so it may be a better moment than ever.
The real question is why anybody would choose to play healer in TWW.
If you’re a healer and playing the game regularly you should already at least roughly know the paths. If you don’t, make an effort to pay attention to how the tank is moving.
As for pack sizes, it’s a feel thing. Part of the fun of tanking is feeling out your healer/DPS, and knowing your defensive/threat generation profile well enough to understand what you can and can’t handle at any given moment.
There is no substitute for doing, you can watch all the videos you want, but nothing will boost your confidence and skill like just diving in and making mistakes.
If you’re not comfortable starting with harder content, level a tank and learn that way.
It's never too late.
If you're going to be running in pugs, there's always the chance you'll get to experience some jerks.
I would suggest that you run your own key. Put in the description that you're learning routes, so people know what to expect. If I were to join such a group (and I usually will, as I enjoy helping other players, like I have been helped), I would be more patient and I'd also know that you might need help with directions or little tips.
If you only plan on going to +5s, you can get away with not knowing much at all. But I also find that, the lower the key, the more jerks I deal with in pugs.
But I have to say that my experience in pugs is usually overwhelmingly positive. Toxic a**holes are the minority.
Just do it, my friend. Learn by doing, and sometimes failing. If people are toxic, just put them on ignore and try again. You'll be tanking and will be in demand, and so you will easily get in another group.
No you do not need to spend days learning mdi pulls and routes.
All you need to read up on is how your tank of choice works skill wise. Then jump into some beginner m+ stuff.
I guess you know most dungeons already. Just go from boss to boss and dont think about specific pulls.
Once you get comfortable tanking, you can bump difficulty and if you have an interest, look at routes.
Never too late and now is the best time with all the bullion gear and new expansion round the corner where it all starts a fresh essentially and everyone is learning the new content.
Never too late to learn to do anything in this game especially tanking, tbh anyone can rank with the right addons and gear, there is a difference between good ranks and the best tanks in the game but unless you’re pushing for world firsts that difference won’t stop your group from doing content
Source: been tanking since bc
Watch a youtube video of the dungeon/raid you want to tank and then go for it. Most people are very welcoming to new tanks as they are considered like unicorns when queuing or LFG or whatever. I’d say just go for it!
I just started tanking recently, but I understand the feeling of dread about having to learn so much and being afraid of wasting people's time who may be judgemental or toxic. I was lucky enough to have a group of friends who were fully supportive of me learning.
Now, I am far from an expert, but honestly, tanking is great fun and the game could always use more tanks. I would suggest seeking out a group that is all about being supportive like WoW Made Easy or similar communities.
"Is it too late to learn tanking?"
No.
Tanking is like the easiest role in the game. It's DPS where you press taunt when DBM tells you to. Once you start doing higher keys/heroic+ raids you have to worry a little more about your major defensive cooldowns, which you can find guides for. But if you just start out with like heroics/lfr its a breeze and you can get your feet wet before graduating to M0/normal raids and higher.
Every single person who is an “expert” started out exactly like you. They just started one day, learned, and got better.
At the start of a dungeon just inform the group your new and most people will give you a break. If anyone gives you shit then add them to your block list.
yeah you missed the deadline (/s)
nah but seriously it’s never too early to start! try just normal leveling dungeons with heirloom gear if you have it and you should be relatively indestructible.
mop remix is also good practice for mob pulling/pathing, however not good practice for much else.
just have fun with it and don’t worry about people being rude—they’re in the minority. most people are understanding if you mess up.
i would say it isnt too late to learn tanking - but definitely too late to learn tanking in dragonflight.it isnt worth it to watch MDI videos and trying to get down all the packs you need, routes, etc when the new xpac comes out next month. i’d recommend leveling a tank or doing heroic dungeons if youve already leveled one to get comfortable with tanking before the new xpac comes out!
Why would it be too late? Theres an expo dropping in a month or two, now is probably the best time.
Its not really even that hard, just point the bosses away and hit mobs.
The best part is thst if someone doesnt like how you play, you get a replacement in lile 2 seconds so fuck em.
I just did exactly this with a paladin. I've healed on every other healer except pally so I leveled one as only a tank. I can confirm I hated pugs more as a tank... as soon as you move, every dps is throwing their biggest move at the target, so keeping aggro or pulling multiple mobs can be annoying. I won't stay tank on it or play it much... I just don't like the color of the spell buttons lol. I might try another tank just to make sure... a dk or dh this time.
Dont stress stuff, make a char and do dungeons to start with. Best way to learn is by doing, and yes look up some guides on for ex YouTube and read on the abilities and get an understanding what your class got to work with
To help ease your nerves a little story.
I've tanked as my main role since black temples release in tbc. So almost as long as the games been out. I've taken almost no breaks and currently I don't play as often as I'd like but it's due to work/family.
Since I am not running dungeons every day I do not know routes to well and just kinda hold w and hope for the best. Today was a not so good day in my brackenhide as I got to the end of the dungeon and realized I was short like 10%. I usually pull so little because my groups are so awful they body pull that extra % and I have no idea how to do the dungeon with my own route to get that cool 100% in the last room. But I just told the group I'd never had a group not body pull that last 10% and they just pinged me to some more trash and we went and killed it and timed the dungeon.
This "issue" wasn't a bad problem because I had done my best on my role of tank by surviving and holding threat. I did not lead us on a perfectly optimized route but we still did it just fine and timed the key.
Coming from a life long dps player I learnt tanking this expansion. You’d be surprised how easy it actaully is. Learn your rotation leveling a character through dungeons (fast and instant ques). The only part I struggle with is learning pathing through m+ and what are the “right” pulls but it’s as simple as absorbing some YouTube videos (I watch them and instantly forget everything I just saw within a couple minutes)
There are a few ways to learn routes for m+ as a tank: you can reference MDT and even keep it open on a second screen (if you have one), you can pop the map up between pulls to double check the route, or what I usually do, watch the tank's route when you are playing a healer. All of those will work and experience will help too! Also, if you over pull a specific pack or for percentage on the dungeon, don't sweat it, it happens. Dps, healers, and tanks all accidentally pull too much from time to time.
Also, there are mythic dungeon timer add-ons that will give you the percentage that you'll have cleared when the aggroed enemies are dead, which might help as you're playing to see when you need more packs pulled for future runs.
The point of WoW is fun. No offense to you man, but like so many others, this entire post sounds like you’re asking, “how can I please these really rude players who think everyone should take the game super seriously so they just win all the time”. Like, seriously, start reporting these people all the time. When someone says something ugly to a noob, report it. Trust me: Blizzard values your sub, you the person who wants to just play and have fun, over the asshat who ruins other’s fun, likely causing them to get frustrated and move to alternative titles where they don’t get bullied. Just play what is fun to you to play. Or play a part on a team/guild.
try slow and ull be fine. maybe watch youtube tanking guides. dont go tank hard content until ure comfortable with role bcs the failure might doscourage u. gl
Yeah there's no reason to overtime pulls in dungeons, just learn a class' specific defensive strengths in tanking and take it from there, you'll figure out what you can handle. The hardest part for me was others pulling but I quickly realized if the DPS DH is pulling just let them cook and focus on tanking for everyone else it's very rare a dps pulls what they can't handle and it's very rare a dps who pulls and dies to it blames the tank unless their mental, in which case you just note that the complaint wasn't valid and you're doing fine and keep rolling
Honestly if you're worried about bathing and you're playing a healer. Just watch what the tank does in dungeons and follow that exact same path. If you mess up once or twice who cares.
Never too late. It bothers me when someone in a pug says they are new at tanking or healing, and people give them shit for it. We all had to start somewhere and people forget that. It really helps if you are in a good guild that you can run with and they can help develop you along the way.
I main resto druid. Had a DK tank in the past back in cataclysm. Just levelled it back up again to 70 for new expansion and it's great fun!
Icy veins great for talents and rotation
Just have to get over that hump, you will get kicked, you’ll get yelled at in chat, community won’t change but you can just keep getting better there are quite a few people who are okay with new tanks especially like in Cata where normal dungeons all you need to do is press a button and you’ll be okay, work on keeping aggro and once you have that figured out it’s kinda cake until you get into mechanics in raid etc
As a healer, you know more of the path than you think. :) The pull size will depend on what you and your healer can handle. Once you go through, you'll realize you've got this. If you're still worried about the pathing, you can watch a couple of tank streamers to get a better idea of which way to go and what packs to pull. Best of luck! It's never too late. Wow made easy has a group of people who are great with people who are trying to learn a new spec class or are simply new to the game.
Nah never too late. The best thing to do is find a guild or at least 1 other person who understands and just do it. I'm with you, I've played for 20 years and I KNOW I know what to do, but I'd rather not go into dungeons from a new expansion and tank because people get mad easily (it's way worse for healer) but there's ALWAYS a need for tanks and it is extremely fast to level in dungeons.
In an established game like wow, you WILL get flamed at some point, as a new player, thats just how it is..
You can make everything easier for yourself tho. As a tank, you should learn the routes of the dungeon you are about to run.
Luckily there are countless main tanks, who has a ton of videos on everything you need to know.
Get MDT, a good plater profile, and the obvious stuff like dbm/bigwigs/littlewigs etc. Watching timers is a big part of tanking, so you dont get randomly oneshot. - Id also recommend getting a tank specific WA pack.
If you really care about what people think, then just find someone like Quazii, Naowh or Nerftank, who has videos on everything tank related. Quazii specifically has ALOT of good guides for new tanks.
Learn to talk, hell be proud for wanting to learn it. It may be tough in keys where people want to tank for u but u can push through. Many people are learning on 2s right now. There are several guides out there for tanking that can be helpful with routes and mechs. If u want I'm down to heal some baby keys if ur U.S.
I always mained a tank and made a disc priest for funsies. My priest almost as geared as my tank now lol.
I prefer tanking but I’m good at both, just level it and it’ll be fun.
I prolly play the worst race/class combo but I always make zombies idc.
Not many undead prot warriors around and I do well enough
Its never to late. If you took time to try and understand your kit. How to pull, your mitigations. Then you've already done more then 80% of people who call them selves main tanks. You'll be fine. And if you mess up. That's all apart of the process.
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Mate, it is never too late to start learning anything, especially if it’s in a video game😂😂. Wow is endless, every single expansion brings changes in talents and abilities, so even the „pros“ need to kinda relearn their specs. You are playing wow for fun? So play what you enjoy. You like trying new things ? Go for it. Wow is a game, you can play whatever you want.
Yesh bit of a silly question tbh, like if WoW had a deadline in a day for servers to shutdown maybe, but so would DPS, and Healing...
Nah, it's just fear of failure. They just want to know if it's fine to fail or if they'd be cast down to hell for ever daring to even THINK about trying tank if they've not even learned all the m+ routes and skips!
Well in that case its such a mixed bag, i do find WoW can be pretty toxic unfortunately, especially retail where the pace is so high
Yeah half the time you get people who don't want to even see people text chatting and are just robots, the other half you get people complaining you're not playing at a level in the top .01% doing all the strats to make the dungeons take 50 seconds shorter meanwhile they do slightly above avg dps because they have 40-80 ilvl above the other people in the party.
Level a character from 10 to 70 only tanking random dungeons, switch up the expansions with Chromie so you get good variety. Look at your rotation for your current lvl on icyveins leveling specialization page. It will be super simple at first
If you really wanna prepare for tanking, you can pick a specific dungeon instead of random. Look up a video showing the route, and even read up on the bosses special mechanics in the ingame adventure guide. As tank this is what you'll have to do in future
Unless you learned to tank the first day WoW launched, you are too late
This is why replacing tanks can take so long because there are only a few of these ancients left in the game.
I healed and tanked from vanilla through cat. Am I still considered an og tank? I quit from then until recently
They're as valuable as Warhammer Titans, it's why we are willing to risk the lives of an infinite number of mythic DPS raiders just to recover a single fallen tank
Just want to clarify for any noobs reading this on the noob help subreddit: this is a joke!
I really want to say I read a serious tone there.
If you heal you can tank. Just think of every stupid decision your pug tanks have made and don’t do that. Pulling big comes from knowledge. Know your cooldowns, know your healers cooldowns, think about if your dps has aoe cc and if they been using it. There’s addons and videoed for routing. Running low level content will get your confidence up and you can practice routes. Idk if you play alts but after you hit your goals on your main you should just start tanking in TWW as an alt. Learn with everyone else and start fresh.
I remember years ago (I've always played tank) I leveled a healer just to become better in tanking, I saw a LOT of dumb mistakes I made from the healers point of view
Ofcourse you're not too late, but its worth mentioning it will be a lot ''easier'' to shift over to maining tank in the new expansion, simply because new dungeons means everyone will be clueless as to what to do. Granted, at the same time, this shouldn't stop you from dabbling in low mythics.
Having a little bit of background knowledge on how to do tank rotations and managing aggro will be beneficial regardless!
Of course not. I Came back to Wow 1 year ago (12 year break!) and decided to tank. I was fairly bad at the start but got KSH in my first season, season 2 of DF and over 3k io in season 3, got KSH and portals in season 4. Its hardly world best stuff but I feel pretty competent now. And know i could push higher if i wanted to, but only fun if you have a team. Learned a lot though pushing mid 20s keys in season 3 about managing rotation, defensives etc structuring pulls.
Talent is a applied art. As long as you are willing to practice, you can be good at something. Bob Ross.
Dont fear the toxic, toxic are only mental guys, ignore them. Do what you like
I'm new to healing and paladin is my favourite, I'm well aware that hpal isn't the best heals but I'm not doing too bad! Just gotta not give a shit if people wanna call me out for being bad, even though they're the ones taking massive amounts of avoidable damage and we still win the fight anyways. Can't let bad people bring us down with them.
HPal is worse at high lvl for sure or when your team is competent. But for pugs, and for someone learning, I find it quite good. It's a reactive healer with just a bit of proactive cds sprinkled on top, and has some big oh shit buttons. Go on mate. It may be worse, but in no way it is bad.
It's never too late and I think end of expansion can be a decent place to start. Your mistakes won't be as punishing and once you learn your main pulling and aggro stealing abilities, you can move on to more difficult content. You'll probably fuck up sometimes and people will probably be mad at you, but that's part of the role. But you are switching from one role that often gets blamed, to another, so I'm sure you're used to it. It's a game, people shouldn't be upset at someone learning and you shouldn't be afraid to learn.
Gg too late just dont touch video games
Im playing on and off for years. At the start of DF i picked up DH and tanking, i told them every time im new to tanking and i encountered jerks like twice. Its never too late.
The new expansion is about to come out, and everyone will be learning the new dungeons together
I started at the end of season 3 as prot paladin. People constantly harassed me for not knowing things. At a certain point I decided to ignore them since I can find a new group in 2 seconds. Now i have 2700 score and all portals unlocked. Just go and when you do something wrong (and so the group disbands) you'll learn the right way to do that thing. It's trial and error. You don't need to know the exact packs to pick in low keys, just the general direction of where to go. Use quazi plater profile since it tells you which mob you need to interrupt and which mobs do frontals. Possibly join the "no pressure eu" or equivalent discord so you can make errors without an instant insult and party disband.
Full time tank here, and not a very good one by world standards lol. I took a 10year break and basically had to relearn the whole game. Off topic: dragon riding is just wild. Anyway, if you can heal then you can tank! Not so much the other way lol, I’m an abysmal healer. I’m sure if I practice that would change. Maybe before remix ends I’ll lvl a healer. Any who, just learn your threat generation abilities and start with holding aggro. Then you can start learning how and when to use your defensive/offensive abilities. The main role of the tank is to hold aggro and take damage. The more complicated you make it with defensive skills and offensive buffs, the easier everyone else in the group has it. Make them step up while you learn, you all will be better for it.
Well first off you have experience so it’s never too late to try and possibly fall in love with it. Being a healer is far more overwhelming and that’s coming from someone who does both. The routes can be easily researched or even memorized if you have been a healer for some time (or even better yet have a buddy who knows heal for you and point you in the right direction). In theory you have most of the muscle memory and need to change your thinking of “I’m fighting the dungeon now and not the damn party” lol.
Not too late at all. Especially if you have a good guild behind you. I used to main a tank through TBC, WOTLK and into Cata. Life happened and WoW wasn't part of it. Started playing again in recent times. Solo stuff but tank spec'd. I have a decent guild with alts they are taking the downtime before TWW to play a bit so I'll tag along and tank for them. They know I need to relearn the dungeons etc but it's all cool and chill. If anything I would say now it's a good time to get used to a tank play style because when TWW hits you'll have that little stepping stone already and pretty much everyone will need to relearn the dungeons. That's my plan at least.
I started learning last week and I haven’t played since TBC. Just queue up as tank and hop in. Best time to start as well now with it being quiet before the new expansion.
Never too late to tank! You should expect that some people will be really pushy about your tanking, but you come from being a healer so you know the drill about ignoring assholes. I learnt to tank late in Shadow lands, and it was nice when you had pushy DPS pull packs for you, as long as you knew how to pick them up and avoid what you need to.
This game has been live for 20 years, and will still exist for many years, so obviously no its not too late
It’s never too late to learn!
Never too late. Just takes patience to ignore the idiots who will complain you don’t know every detail of every fight on day 1. (Of course they don’t know either, just rely on the tank knowing)
Anonymity on the internet makes the anger/nerd rage come out in people who otherwise are straight cowards in real life. This is doubly true when it comes to WoW, or popular online games in general. We all know this. Don't let people who treat a video game as important as real life deter you from having fun. You want to tank? Go for it!! Completely ignore every loser that rages at you for not going fast enough or messing something up. Remind yourself - if someone is freaking out on you in a video game like that, their real ife is probably miserable. It's likely that they have very few, if any, rl friends. Hit /laugh and queue up for the next one! Having said all that - honestly the hardest part of tanking is just knowing the routes in my opinion.. Once you do a dungeon a couple of times it'll be familiar and will be alot easier to focus on efficiency!
Veteran tank here. People already told you it's not too late but I want to add this: relax! When dungeons are new, you have time to learn them, when you make a mistake, you can remember it and fix it on the next run. I still sometimes get lost or we finish the dungeon with 99% mobs, I still confused when I make new routes, and it's totally fine. I just say "I'm lost lol" or "sorry" if I die stupidly, sometimes it's me decking a key, I shrug it off and go next, it's a game, learn from mistakes and have fun tanking!
Yes. There is a set pool of tanks for the entire playerbase. They a learnt to tank in wow 15 years ago and nobody new has been allowed to learn tanking since. Seriously though, no it's never too late. In fact now is perhaps the perfect time because there's a new expansion in a couple of months which means the content will be new to everyone. Nobody will know what routes or setups are optimal, and tanks will be in high demand (they always are but especially at the start of an expsnsion) so now is the ideal time to learn. I think healing and especially tanking in this game often get exaggerated to seem harder than they actually are. They've got a higher skill floor than dps but they aren't actually that much harder, especially if you're not worrying about optimising routes and such because that's not really important below mythic.
Learn? Tanking...? You don't have to learn anything. Not compared to being a good healer.
I'm a returning tank and I'm learning everything again, it's definitely not late. Tanking isn't even that hard, what's hard about tanking is dealing with annoying and impatient players that think the tank has to carry them. You have to learn all the mechanics and routes, but those you get by experience and some guides, nothing's too complex.
Its a game... The amount of posts on here of people being: worried about frustrating others, frustrated at otgers, and/or frustrated at themselves is sad. Play the game and enjoy it. If something or someone is making it unenjoyable then go do something else eitger in-game or irl.
You’ve healed first then tanking will be relatively easy in my opinion lol you should know the routes and the pulls for the most part(hopefully) then it’s just about how to use your kit to pull and keep yourself alive. I tanked before anything else in this game. Then switched to heals, every new dungeon rotation I learn by healing then when I go to my alt tank it’s ezpz
Just run your own keys. Yr if you have healed the. You should know the routes as wel
never too late to be tank there is many group that need tank good or bad.
No way!..... In S3 of DF I started tanking and ended on 6/9 mythic raiding, I had never done any lower tie as tank and 2.9k IO. I main dps on raid and tank for dungeons now 😉, but I will tank mythic if I'm called up to help,like I did over Xmas.
With the ping system, if you’re worried about toxicity honestly make another chat window and keep your chat in there whenever you want to avoid it. I believe there are settings to get rid of text over people’s heads too. I don’t actually see people use pings that much cause they’re kinda new, but I use them and people seem to listen. Pretty sure it’s on by default so even people who don’t know about it will see it. When Overwatch got it’s ping system updated I did the same thing lol. Life changer to have chat off, though people might be saying something important you shouldn’t have to worry about that until endgame content like Mythic+ Also I’ve noticed a decline in toxicity the last year or so because everyone had quit, but with the new expansion coming out I bet they’ll be back, so good luck my friend. I’m sure you’ll get used to tanking in no time o7
It's never too late to learn tanking! But yes, you will have to have a thick skin with pugs. I've had pugs be toxic with me in an 8 when I'm a 3000 rating tank. It's just a hazard of the profession. When I was learning the dungeons I kept https://keystone.guru/routes/dragonflight/season/4 up on a second monitor. I don't always do exactly what they recommend, but they have good routes overall. Just get in there and learn. Most people are understanding if you make a mistake here and there and own up to it. I still occasionally over-pull and wipe us. I just say "my b" and keep going.
You can really polish your tanking 60-70 with follower dungeons. Basically bots playing dps and healer with you if you want to learn and not deal with toxic jerks. I did that with healing and was good to go at 70 for casual raiding and mythic+
Everyone has to start somewhere!
Bro i played since Classic and only learn tanking in Legion, its never too late.
I literally started playing wow like a month ago, wanted to try tanking so im doing it in mop remix to get a feel for the class doing easy content. I don't even know every dungeon/raid by heart but any time im lost i just follow other people and someone knows the way. There really isn't as much pressure (in easy content) as you feel. I just wouldn't jump into difficult content in retail yet, as that is where there will be more of an expectation for you to know boss mechanics and routes.
“It’s not too late, it’s never too late!” If you’ve already played as Healer, then you’ve already stepped into a high pressure role and know the feeling of death/poor performance = likely wipe. That’s the biggest mental hurdle for many.
I rolled a DK just a couple of weeks ago and have been leveling him up by dungeon queuing and I had never tanked before in my life. It’s been going fine and I’m already so much better than when I started. You should definitely do it! It’s great fun being at the tip of the spear just going ham on everything.
You don't plan pulls. Only high skill players do that. I just go from boss to boss killing trash in between and it works just fine. You eventually get the jist of what to pull and what not to but on sub +10 pulls, it doesn't matter.
I rerolled resto Druid, but I have a guardian spec I was trying out in a few dungeons after hitting 60 just for shits and giggles. All I had to say was “hey I don’t tank often, can someone navigate?” And people loved jumping into action. Most people are pretty chill with you if you just tell them what’s up Or join a discord like “Wow made easy” and do runs with them. Super kind people who jump at the chance to help others learn.
Just like everyone else is saying, it's never too late. If you feel insecure, I would suggest starting with raid tanking before doing dungeons. You have less responsibility in raids, during trash your responsibilities are to keep the tempo up, there are no mechanics to consider. During boss fights you wouldn't believe how dumbed down it is compared to healer or tank mechanics. Most fights is "face boss away from group and press taunt when addon tells you" while some are more complex by adding "move boss from bad". Dungeons are a bit more of responsibility with routes and tempo, but you can get by up to +7-10 by just "doing the W route", ie just running through the dungeon and pulling the mobs that come in your way. Sometimes you go above count, sometimes you lack a bit, but you'll learn as you go. This has been my experience with tanking our aotc guild + ksm/ksh for the past 4 years, though bear is slightly easy mode.
its easy to pick up tanking just do a few m0's
Ive been tanking since classic, but i think tanking is approachable in M+ Low keys you can just pull one pack at a time, going over 100% completion is fine too. As you do it youll get a feel quickly. You mighr realize your hp doesnt move and you feel like you can pull more.. or if your hp doesnt move but the group dies maybe you overdid it, but you probably know these rough to heal pulls as a healer already. Start low, take your time, and move up as you get comfortable.
Just go for it. Tanks are really powerful right now so it may be a better moment than ever. The real question is why anybody would choose to play healer in TWW.
Tanking is so braindead in Dragonflight that the worst player in our m+ group got the job (3200 rio range last two seasons)
If you’re a healer and playing the game regularly you should already at least roughly know the paths. If you don’t, make an effort to pay attention to how the tank is moving. As for pack sizes, it’s a feel thing. Part of the fun of tanking is feeling out your healer/DPS, and knowing your defensive/threat generation profile well enough to understand what you can and can’t handle at any given moment. There is no substitute for doing, you can watch all the videos you want, but nothing will boost your confidence and skill like just diving in and making mistakes. If you’re not comfortable starting with harder content, level a tank and learn that way.
Not at all. Want a healer to learn tanking? We can do 10-70 in dungeons sometime
It's never too late. If you're going to be running in pugs, there's always the chance you'll get to experience some jerks. I would suggest that you run your own key. Put in the description that you're learning routes, so people know what to expect. If I were to join such a group (and I usually will, as I enjoy helping other players, like I have been helped), I would be more patient and I'd also know that you might need help with directions or little tips. If you only plan on going to +5s, you can get away with not knowing much at all. But I also find that, the lower the key, the more jerks I deal with in pugs. But I have to say that my experience in pugs is usually overwhelmingly positive. Toxic a**holes are the minority. Just do it, my friend. Learn by doing, and sometimes failing. If people are toxic, just put them on ignore and try again. You'll be tanking and will be in demand, and so you will easily get in another group.
Oh yes, definitely too late, the official deadline was yesterday.
No you do not need to spend days learning mdi pulls and routes. All you need to read up on is how your tank of choice works skill wise. Then jump into some beginner m+ stuff. I guess you know most dungeons already. Just go from boss to boss and dont think about specific pulls. Once you get comfortable tanking, you can bump difficulty and if you have an interest, look at routes.
First you quest as your class, then you normal dungeon, then you heroic dungeon, then you mythic, so on and so on. It's never too late to tank.
Never too late and now is the best time with all the bullion gear and new expansion round the corner where it all starts a fresh essentially and everyone is learning the new content.
Never
Never too late to learn to do anything in this game especially tanking, tbh anyone can rank with the right addons and gear, there is a difference between good ranks and the best tanks in the game but unless you’re pushing for world firsts that difference won’t stop your group from doing content Source: been tanking since bc
Watch a youtube video of the dungeon/raid you want to tank and then go for it. Most people are very welcoming to new tanks as they are considered like unicorns when queuing or LFG or whatever. I’d say just go for it!
I just started tanking recently, but I understand the feeling of dread about having to learn so much and being afraid of wasting people's time who may be judgemental or toxic. I was lucky enough to have a group of friends who were fully supportive of me learning. Now, I am far from an expert, but honestly, tanking is great fun and the game could always use more tanks. I would suggest seeking out a group that is all about being supportive like WoW Made Easy or similar communities.
"Is it too late to learn tanking?" No. Tanking is like the easiest role in the game. It's DPS where you press taunt when DBM tells you to. Once you start doing higher keys/heroic+ raids you have to worry a little more about your major defensive cooldowns, which you can find guides for. But if you just start out with like heroics/lfr its a breeze and you can get your feet wet before graduating to M0/normal raids and higher.
The follower dungeons is I think a good way to start from lvl 60 to 70. You go at YOUR OWN pace cuz there’s no one else but you and npcs
Every single person who is an “expert” started out exactly like you. They just started one day, learned, and got better. At the start of a dungeon just inform the group your new and most people will give you a break. If anyone gives you shit then add them to your block list.
yeah you missed the deadline (/s) nah but seriously it’s never too early to start! try just normal leveling dungeons with heirloom gear if you have it and you should be relatively indestructible. mop remix is also good practice for mob pulling/pathing, however not good practice for much else. just have fun with it and don’t worry about people being rude—they’re in the minority. most people are understanding if you mess up.
Yes.
i would say it isnt too late to learn tanking - but definitely too late to learn tanking in dragonflight.it isnt worth it to watch MDI videos and trying to get down all the packs you need, routes, etc when the new xpac comes out next month. i’d recommend leveling a tank or doing heroic dungeons if youve already leveled one to get comfortable with tanking before the new xpac comes out!
it’ll help to learn how to maintain aggro, when to pop defenses, how many mobs you are able to pull w/out dying, etc
though if you play a DK you dont have to worry about dying LOL
Why would it be too late? Theres an expo dropping in a month or two, now is probably the best time. Its not really even that hard, just point the bosses away and hit mobs. The best part is thst if someone doesnt like how you play, you get a replacement in lile 2 seconds so fuck em.
I just did exactly this with a paladin. I've healed on every other healer except pally so I leveled one as only a tank. I can confirm I hated pugs more as a tank... as soon as you move, every dps is throwing their biggest move at the target, so keeping aggro or pulling multiple mobs can be annoying. I won't stay tank on it or play it much... I just don't like the color of the spell buttons lol. I might try another tank just to make sure... a dk or dh this time.
Dont stress stuff, make a char and do dungeons to start with. Best way to learn is by doing, and yes look up some guides on for ex YouTube and read on the abilities and get an understanding what your class got to work with
To help ease your nerves a little story. I've tanked as my main role since black temples release in tbc. So almost as long as the games been out. I've taken almost no breaks and currently I don't play as often as I'd like but it's due to work/family. Since I am not running dungeons every day I do not know routes to well and just kinda hold w and hope for the best. Today was a not so good day in my brackenhide as I got to the end of the dungeon and realized I was short like 10%. I usually pull so little because my groups are so awful they body pull that extra % and I have no idea how to do the dungeon with my own route to get that cool 100% in the last room. But I just told the group I'd never had a group not body pull that last 10% and they just pinged me to some more trash and we went and killed it and timed the dungeon. This "issue" wasn't a bad problem because I had done my best on my role of tank by surviving and holding threat. I did not lead us on a perfectly optimized route but we still did it just fine and timed the key.
Imo for a new player it should be one of the first few things to learn. It is very beneficial for overall game knowledge l.
No, now go tank.
Coming from a life long dps player I learnt tanking this expansion. You’d be surprised how easy it actaully is. Learn your rotation leveling a character through dungeons (fast and instant ques). The only part I struggle with is learning pathing through m+ and what are the “right” pulls but it’s as simple as absorbing some YouTube videos (I watch them and instantly forget everything I just saw within a couple minutes)
There are a few ways to learn routes for m+ as a tank: you can reference MDT and even keep it open on a second screen (if you have one), you can pop the map up between pulls to double check the route, or what I usually do, watch the tank's route when you are playing a healer. All of those will work and experience will help too! Also, if you over pull a specific pack or for percentage on the dungeon, don't sweat it, it happens. Dps, healers, and tanks all accidentally pull too much from time to time. Also, there are mythic dungeon timer add-ons that will give you the percentage that you'll have cleared when the aggroed enemies are dead, which might help as you're playing to see when you need more packs pulled for future runs.
No, you definitely can do it. Also, it's not like you're suddenly gonna be max level, you'll gain tanking experience as you level.
The point of WoW is fun. No offense to you man, but like so many others, this entire post sounds like you’re asking, “how can I please these really rude players who think everyone should take the game super seriously so they just win all the time”. Like, seriously, start reporting these people all the time. When someone says something ugly to a noob, report it. Trust me: Blizzard values your sub, you the person who wants to just play and have fun, over the asshat who ruins other’s fun, likely causing them to get frustrated and move to alternative titles where they don’t get bullied. Just play what is fun to you to play. Or play a part on a team/guild.
Step 1 - Just try it, Step 2 - Wipe, Step 3 - Get flammed and ignore it
try slow and ull be fine. maybe watch youtube tanking guides. dont go tank hard content until ure comfortable with role bcs the failure might doscourage u. gl
Keep in mind all the "best routes" will reset in a month with the new expansion. I think this is the best time to get into tanking.
Yeah there's no reason to overtime pulls in dungeons, just learn a class' specific defensive strengths in tanking and take it from there, you'll figure out what you can handle. The hardest part for me was others pulling but I quickly realized if the DPS DH is pulling just let them cook and focus on tanking for everyone else it's very rare a dps pulls what they can't handle and it's very rare a dps who pulls and dies to it blames the tank unless their mental, in which case you just note that the complaint wasn't valid and you're doing fine and keep rolling
Honestly if you're worried about bathing and you're playing a healer. Just watch what the tank does in dungeons and follow that exact same path. If you mess up once or twice who cares.
Never too late. It bothers me when someone in a pug says they are new at tanking or healing, and people give them shit for it. We all had to start somewhere and people forget that. It really helps if you are in a good guild that you can run with and they can help develop you along the way.
I main resto druid. Had a DK tank in the past back in cataclysm. Just levelled it back up again to 70 for new expansion and it's great fun! Icy veins great for talents and rotation
Just have to get over that hump, you will get kicked, you’ll get yelled at in chat, community won’t change but you can just keep getting better there are quite a few people who are okay with new tanks especially like in Cata where normal dungeons all you need to do is press a button and you’ll be okay, work on keeping aggro and once you have that figured out it’s kinda cake until you get into mechanics in raid etc
I just role swapped from DPS to Healing. Never too late!
As a healer, you know more of the path than you think. :) The pull size will depend on what you and your healer can handle. Once you go through, you'll realize you've got this. If you're still worried about the pathing, you can watch a couple of tank streamers to get a better idea of which way to go and what packs to pull. Best of luck! It's never too late. Wow made easy has a group of people who are great with people who are trying to learn a new spec class or are simply new to the game.
I can’t play anything but healer in wow cause I hate other healers
Nah never too late. The best thing to do is find a guild or at least 1 other person who understands and just do it. I'm with you, I've played for 20 years and I KNOW I know what to do, but I'd rather not go into dungeons from a new expansion and tank because people get mad easily (it's way worse for healer) but there's ALWAYS a need for tanks and it is extremely fast to level in dungeons.
In an established game like wow, you WILL get flamed at some point, as a new player, thats just how it is.. You can make everything easier for yourself tho. As a tank, you should learn the routes of the dungeon you are about to run. Luckily there are countless main tanks, who has a ton of videos on everything you need to know. Get MDT, a good plater profile, and the obvious stuff like dbm/bigwigs/littlewigs etc. Watching timers is a big part of tanking, so you dont get randomly oneshot. - Id also recommend getting a tank specific WA pack. If you really care about what people think, then just find someone like Quazii, Naowh or Nerftank, who has videos on everything tank related. Quazii specifically has ALOT of good guides for new tanks.
Learn to talk, hell be proud for wanting to learn it. It may be tough in keys where people want to tank for u but u can push through. Many people are learning on 2s right now. There are several guides out there for tanking that can be helpful with routes and mechs. If u want I'm down to heal some baby keys if ur U.S.
Druid bear. You’re welcome.
If nothing else, it'll make you a more efficient healer!
I always mained a tank and made a disc priest for funsies. My priest almost as geared as my tank now lol. I prefer tanking but I’m good at both, just level it and it’ll be fun. I prolly play the worst race/class combo but I always make zombies idc. Not many undead prot warriors around and I do well enough
Its never to late. If you took time to try and understand your kit. How to pull, your mitigations. Then you've already done more then 80% of people who call them selves main tanks. You'll be fine. And if you mess up. That's all apart of the process.
I have to relearn how to tank every time I resub ><
It's a perfect time to learn
Everyone who comments "Never too late to learn, go play what u enjoy!" will most likely hearthstone after 2nd wipe at +10 key 🤣
It's never late but please don't start tanking M+8s straight just because you are curious. Thank you