AoE Tanking

Without further adieu, my long overdue post on AoE Tanking... for Warriors.

AoE Tanking is about 3 things:
- Group control
- Damage mitigation
- Threat output

The important thing about AoE pulls is making sure that all the mobs are actually IN the AoE. While this seems like an obvious thing to point out, it's surprising to see how often mobs are left out. If you have casters in the group, pull around a corner or charge in (if it's safe to do so). Either approach will bring the group into a small enough circle for your DPS to throw down their AoE.
Positioning yourself within the group of mobs is a very important aspect of AoE tanking especially if there are hard-hitting melee mobs. You need to be sure you are turned in a way that you are able to block attacks (you'll see why soon).

The greatest mitigation tool you have against melee is the armor, but block sure is nice. You'll want to stack a certain amount of block rating and block value for AoE pulls. Most melee doesn't do enough damage to overrun your block value, so it is essentially the same as avoidance, but with 1 huge benefit. Damage Shield. 20% of your SBV automatically to the mob. This doesn't cost rage or a global cooldown and occurs every time you block. Aside from Thunder Clap and Shockwave, this is your only effective AoE threat generator.
Warriors are actually pretty solid when it comes to taking spell damage despite our low health pools. With talents, we can ignore 16% of incoming spell damage. Spell Reflection also lends a hand every 10 seconds for both damage mitigation and threat.

As mentioned above, Damage Shield really is a great threat generator against melee, but useless against casters. Warriors are slightly inferior when it comes to AoE tanking casters (Druids have a no cooldown AoE while Paladins and DKs have an AoEoT (AoE over time)). Shockwave and Thunderclap are on 20 and 8 second CDs, respectively. If we've blown those cooldowns and are still seeing "Losing Threat" we don't have a lot of tools to ensure continued aggro on multiple mobs.
A small amount of threat (around 70) can be generated by applying Battle Shout or Commanding Shout. Reapplying does not generate additional threat, but switching between shouts does. Also, if you have yet to use Demoralizing Shout, that does a small amount as well (around 40).

Some additional tips and tactics:
- Use Thunder Clap before Shockwave because the damage from TC can break the stun. A mob doing no damage is much less of a threat.
- Make sure Vigilance is applied to your best AoE. Alternatively, you can put it on your other tank to give your self a no-cooldown Taunt (especially good for Gothik in Naxx25).
- Rogues and Hunters are your friends. If their MD/ToT is on cooldown, wait a few seconds to pull caster groups.
- Grand Widow Faerlina's disciples that cast the shadowbolts do a funny thing when first pulled. They cast at EXACTLY the same time. This means, you need to save enough rage for those groups to run in and pop Spell Reflect. Once you see most of the group casting put it up, you'll see a whole lot of "Reflect" pop up. It's especially great because they don't even have to be targeting you (assuming you're adequately talented).

If you have tips and tricks that you use, let it be known in the comments.