Proving Yourself: Endless Tank (Wave 30)

For protection warriors, I think this is a definite challenge. I wanted to chime in with some insights from someone who spent some good time working on it, tweaking things, and working on it some more. I came here and saw of couple of posts from people saying "EZ, did it first try" and similar comments with little actual advice - for me this was frustrating because I found the Endless Tank 30 to be fairly difficult (and I'm not new to my class or role). I am writing this as a warrior, but other classes may find some similarities or useful info here.

A few notes - make sure you only use your abilities when needed, and don't try to focus too hard on killing enemies as much as you are focused on the survival of yourself and your healer. For example, you may think it makes sense to use Shockwave when you have 1-2 enemies remaining, but don't forget that your cooldown is much longer if you don't hit at least 3 targets. Also, some of your abilities can be used nearly every round, but others will be down through some critical areas if you don't plan correctly. It is a definite balancing act, especially in later rounds.

Some recommended warrior abilities/glyphs/talents:

• Shockwave (use primarily when you have 3+ enemies)
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• Intimidating Shout (this can buy you a nice breather in incoming damage). I like to use this early on the three windguard group (between Shockwave cooldowns; 2 will stay feared the full duration, while the other chases you...by the time the other 2 join Shockwave may be up again).
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• Heroic Leap (with Glyph of Heroic Leap) - this can also buy you a little more time getting away from some mobs. Kiting works on some of them and, again, buys you some precious time.
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• Enraged Regeneration - don't forget this works well with Last Stand (LS raises your max health and heals you, and ER heals you instant and over-time based on your max health).
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• Mocking Banner - This one has a long cooldown, but can be your best friend, especially on waves where you have multiple windguards always knocking you around and dropping threat - it will force them (as well as newly spawned ambushers) to run back to you.
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• Ravager - I generally put this in the middle of the room (on the NPC) and it helps me to get/keep aggro with groups there. However, the biggest advantage is in the big boost to parry. This will help you in tanking mobs as well.
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• Mass Spell Reflect - This was more useful to me than Safeguard or Vigilance, because I could use it to bounce-back spells cast on the healer as well (or two at once, if the enemies cast at the same time). Especially good against the large flamecaller's Pyroblast. I could see Vigilance or Safeguard being useful on the healer, but I couldn't get them to work correctly for me in a macro and was happy enough with Mass Spell Reflect that I didn't care.
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• Standard damage reduction cooldowns - Try to use all of these and keep them handy, they will make quite a difference. Shield Block, Demoralizing Shout, Shield Wall, etc.
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• Bloodbath - for me this made a difference on Windguard waves, because the extra DoT tick would frequently get me aggro back after a wind blast.

Also - don't forget to make make the enemies stand in the fire on the ground (while not standing in it yourself). This fire causes them damage-over-time as well as increases their incoming damage. Using this well meant that I always had a nice break of 10-25 seconds on most flamecaller waves.

Stay mobile - kiting enemies is an important way to bridge between cooldowns and survive. Use newly spawned enemies to Charge away from your current guys, both to pickup the new ones and to avoid damage for a few seconds. Use Heroic Leap the same way, or simply to leap away and run for a time. If you have a caster targeted on you, you can use the barriers to interrupt their cast and force them to move before casting again (forcing Line of Sight).

Let the healer take a hit now and then. I found that for most waves, she could handle the casters if she started with good health. You can focus on grabbing and positioning the melee troops while she kills the others. An ambusher here or there is probably fine for her to tank, as long as you're keeping things under control.

Finally, it is ok if you have some leftovers wave-to-wave. This is expected. Try to keep in mind what your next wave may hold so you can have the appropriate ability cooldowns available and you can even position yourself to pick that next wave up soon after it spawns.

As a side note - you should be using everything at your disposal here. For me that includes the dwarven racial Stoneform (which also drops the bleed DoT from the bunnies), as well as flasks and food.

Guide for Death Knights:
(Can be used for other classes too!)

Stats were:
Orc
319K HP fully buffed.
Item level was 635.

Talents were:
Plaguebearer, Purgatory, Death's Advance, Runic Corruption, Death Pact, Gorefiend's Grasp, and Defile.
Looking back, I would recommend Remorseless winter and Asphyxiate to stun the mobs, especially for wave #2 and #9.

Glyphs were:
Blood Boil, Regenerative Magic, and Outbreak.

Notes
Got up to wave number 36 when I failed due to the damage after 7 plus tries, so needless to say it was difficult with low Ilvl gear. The higher your gear is, the easier it'll be due to the items not scaling to a certain ilvl.
The most difficult waves were wave #2, #6, and #9. Try to save your DPS and Mitigation CD for those ones.
What is extremely important, is that while Sikari will be doing most of the DPS, you will need to contribute, otherwise the waves will keep spawning and you'll get overrun, especially on wave #9 where wave #8 will most likely be alive until the beginning of wave #9.

Sikari has 400k plus HP, she can tank a couple mobs for a while.

A tip on increasing DPS on pulls with lots of mobs, is to cast Dancing Rune Weapon, (use blood fury as an orc) cast Outbreak, and spread it with blood boil. This will place 2 of both Frost Fever and Blood Plague, which will improve your DPS tremendously.
Use Soul Reaper when possible for the increased haste and damage.

Waves:
Wave #1: Easy difficulty. Easy warm up wave. Just kill both the Large Illusionary Ripper and the Wing Guard. If you attack the Wind Guard first (Spawns on the right), Sikari will dps it first.

Wave #2: Medium difficulty. Use the DRW dps rotation, and spam blood boil to nuke the small illusionary foragers as fast as possible. The adds themselves don't do too much damage, but the combination of their damage and their dot makes them deadly. I could imagine Remorseless winter stunning them and getting rid of the damage while inside the stun. Pick up the Ambusher when you have the chance. If you go without Remorseless winter, use Bone shield at 15 stacks of the debuff, and use Icebound Fortitude at 21.

Wave #3: Easy difficulty. Let Sikari dps one of the Small Illusionary Flamecallers and tank it. Pick up both the Rippers and one of the Flamecallers. AMS and position all three into a fire and the fire will make all three mobs die quickly.

Wave #4: Medium difficulty. Kill the Large Illusionary Conqueror first, as it has lower HP. Most likely, the Wind Guard that accompanies it will cast its knockback when the conqueror enrages, so ignore the windguard and let Sikari tank it for a bit. Chain Rune Tap and it should be sufficient to go through the conqueror's enrage. Remember to move out of the knockback. Pick up the Wind Guard when you have breathing room. Pick up the ambusher.

Wave #5: Easy difficulty. You may have the ambusher up. The Flamecaller, again, can be ignored until both the rippers are dead. Pick up the ambusher, and remember to position them into the fire. This is your "breather" wave. Don't use any major CDs, Rune tap if needed.

Wave #6: Hard difficulty. 3 Wind Guards will spawn, pick up two and let Sikari tank one for a short while. Use the DRW outbreak combo here to DPS all three down ASAP. This will increase DPS and also give you a 20% damage mitigation, give or take depending on RNG of parry. This is the hardest pull if pull #9 is done correctly. Use all defensive CDs other than IBF, including Empower Rune Weapon for Death Strike spam. When the Wind Guards do their knockback, it is acceptable to let Sikari tank one for a short while. When the minute is over, you should have 1 dead, and 1 close to it.

Wave #7: Hard difficulty. The pull alone is not difficult, however the combination of the Wind Guard from pull #6 makes it challenging. Use IBF once you pick up Conqueror and Foragers. Prioritize the Foragers over the Wind Guard and Conqueror. Again, if you have remorseless Winter, use it to clear stacks. Once the Foragers are dead. the Wind Guard should be close to half HP, so prioritize it over the Conqueror.

Wave #8: Medium difficulty. The Flamecaller will be DPSed down by Sikari. Focus on pulling the Ambushers into the fire, and DPSing them down. You will most likely have one up near the beginning of wave #9. 3 seconds before wave #9, use Army of the dead.

Wave #9: Ridiculously hard difficulty without Army. Pick up the 2 Wind Guards, and the 3 Rippers immediately, as if they run towards Sikari, depending on her HP, they can kill her in seconds. Find the small illusionary ripper, as it is just unneeded damage, and use the DRW/outbreak combo. Pick up the ambushers. By the time army is dead, the small illusionary ripper should be dead, and the 2 other ones close to or dead by cleave damage. Use IBF if 3 or more mobs are up, and nuke the lowest HP mob down asap to mitigate damage. Again, Remorseless winter is useful here.

Wave #10: Medium difficulty. Pick up the Conqueror, and let Sikari tank the Flamecaller. The Conqueror can be positioned into the fire. Pick up the ambusher. All you have to do for the title is to survive.

Final Tips
Wave #11 and #21 are the same as wave #1. Wave #12 and #22 are the same as wave #2, and so on and so forth. Everything is repetition.
Use flasks.
Stay calm. Don't let the mobs attack from behind (this is a given).

Enjoy your new title!

Your items lose durability during this, so make sure you repaired your items before you start the event.