I'm aware that this is mostly obsolete in a couple weeks...maybe even this week or next week! The entire tanking game is changing, I think there are pretty amazing changes for all the tanking classes, but warrior tanking is completely different. Its going to be weird, but I think its going to be extremely fun as well. I just want to document my current methods and maybe someday look back, read about them, and think about how much things have changed.

I should have done it pre-BC as well, but didn't. I sort of regret that. Pre-BC I used NR as more of a loot tracker than a blog.

I got some questions about my use of [Force Reactive Disk] at level 70. Yes, I do use it. Not all the time, just for certain things. I used it in 5 mans, and once I got geared enough that using it in heroics wouldn't mean certain death I started using it there as well. Its not a REQUIRED thing by any means, but it means I get to be a little bit lazy sometimes.

Things I use it for:
1) The wyrms in Magister's Terrace. I round them all up at once with it. It takes a pretty big durability hit during this, but its relatively cheap to repair, so its worth it.
2) Brewfest Boss Adds
3) Just about all normal instances now.
4) Shattered Halls - Heroic and Normal. Its great for this.
5) Pretty much anything where there are lots of adds that don't do magic damage.

Why not on magic damage adds?

Couple of reasons.
1) They're usually not close enough
2) They can't proc it themselves, it requires something blockable to proc it.
3) Spell Reflect does a fine job of this.

I've mentioned before I'm a biiiiig fan of Spell Reflect. Spell reflect comes in handy for tanking heroics. Its something that makes me job a lot easier.

Things spell reflect is good for:

1) Heroic Slave Pens - You know those two pulls near the start where you get a Naga and then his three Broken adds that run away when he dies? On the one side, theres usually two casters. If you spell reflect on the pull, you'll reflect both frostbolts from them and that will keep them on you the entire fight. This means you just have to devastate the melee add once, and then tank the Naga.

2) Heroic Slave Pens - Some of the Broken mobs in here have a Cripple Debuff. These mobs come in pairs, so you can silence the first cripple and reflect the second.

3) Imps in Shadow Labyrinth - At the start of Shadow Labyrinth there is a pull with an orc warlock and several imps that do a Fire Bolt spell. If you run out of line of sight, once they bunch up they'll all start casting at once. Spell Reflecting here keeps them on you and you don't have to bother with them while you tank the warlock. Easy? Yup!

4) Imps in Blood Furnace - Near the end of blood furnace, right before you go down the "Hallway of Death" with the giant Fel Guard mobs that can completely destroy a geared tank if they get a little bit lucky there is a pull with several elite imp mobs. Bloodrage, charge into the room, and spell reflect immediatly. With any lucky at all, you'll reflect all their firebolts, except the mob you charged who was stunned for a second. After this I just go around devastating and thunderclapping them as needed, but the spell reflect gives me a decent head start.

5) Pulls in Magisters' Terrace. If warriors are good at anything, its soaking up large amounts of damage. Just not spell damage, which is what Magisters' is all about. Some of the pulls in there consist of several mobs that do lots of spell damage. I try to keep enough rage at the end of a fight so that I'll be able to spell reflect at the start of the next. Mostly I'll Mark the mobs, Shoot them, and then run around a corner so that they all come to me in a neat little line. Sometimes though the distance between the mobs and the corner is far enough that they'll get a spell off and if its a frost spell, you might get slowed and take 2-3 more spells before getting around the corner to your group. Sometimes its just a lifesaver because something goes wrong with the CC and you get hit with 3-4 spells at one and your health rapidly drops.

Times to NOT use Spell Reflect:
1) In a crowded area filled with hostile mobs when something is casting fear at you. Reflecting a fear in an instance can often result in death. Unless the mob thats fearing you happens to be immune to fear. Then you can safely reflect the fear and get an "Immune!" message.

2) When you're fighting mobs that cast Damage Over Time Spells, or things like Fireball that have a DoT attached to them and one of those mobs is set to be crowd controlled. I've accidently done this in magister's terrace. I marked a mob that does Fireball for sheep, and I spell reflected on the pull and so the mob couldn't be sheeped. Oops!

In the upcoming patch with all the awesome changes of awesomeness...Two things happen that I'm quite excited about, if the beta is any indication at least.

1) Raging Berserker Tanking! What do I mean by that? On the beta realm I'm doing crazy damage while tanking. Thats a lot nicer than being "RWAR GIANT MEAT SHIELD...that hits you for 120 damage woo!"

2) SuperClap - The thunderclap changes make it even more awesome, so multimob tanking becomes slightly less frantic! Yay!

OPINION INCOMING.
I read a thread on the forum earlier from someone who was having trouble tanking more than 2 mobs at once and half the people were telling them "It takes lots of practice, keep working at it!" and the other half was saying "Don't bother trying, the new changes make it not required." - I'm in agreement with the first half. I talk to quite a few warrior tanks that I've met in my time playing WoW and the general belief is that the longer you've been tanking the better you're going to be with it, even if it changes completely and everything you knew becomes obsolete.

Tanking was very different pre-BC, and we didn't have all the multimob tools we have today, but we learned how to do it and we did it. BC came out, changed lots of things, new things to learn, and we learned it and did it. Most people that are new to the warrior class have serious problems with multimob tanking and lots of them just can't do it. Its not something that gets explained to you in game very well. Its something you have to do a combination of reading about and figuring out yourself. I could write out in great detail everything that I know about tanking lots of mobs at once, but it wouldn't really tell someone exactly how to do it. You just have to get a feel for it. Reading about it tells you what to aim for and the basics of it, but there are a billion different situations where you make slight variations to your strategy.

Now Warrior tanking is getting a complete overhaul, its going to be a totally different game for us. Its a very exciting time to be a Protection Warrior. Things are getting "easier" for us, but I'm of the opinion that learning how to do things the "hard way" will benefit you more in the long run.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming patch and I expect to be posting several updates when it hits about all the differences and how tanking for me has changed. If I have the time... >.> My schedule is pretty blah right now.