Tanks and Tankery

[Artega]

This is why shield wall doesn't suck. Just different means to the same end. I'd be interested to hear how well these strategies work when you get to Temple, BRD, Scholomance and the like.
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As of Uldaman, pulling that stunt without telling my party generally gets me killed, but also generally winds up with all of the mobs dying with me, or leaving a single mob with a smidgeon of HP left. Defensive Stance is definitely starting to shine in the harder parts of Uldaman, but it still lacks AE Taunting capabilities like Battle Stance.

EDIT: I should add that while Shield Wall will definitely keep me living through that little stunt, it won't cause nearly enough aggro to keep them on me AFTER the stunt ends, and since it doesn't weaken the mobs at all, it means that I have a few precious seconds of near-invulnerability with everything on me, after which they go back to what they were doing (generally killing the squishies, since I don't pull said stunt unless everything's gone to hell.) Case in point - the battle with Grimlok. We did this a bit early (I was 42, and everyone else was between 38 and 41), and we decided that I would drink a Rage potion, run in, hit Bloodrage, and spam Thunder Clap and Dem Shout to soak up some hate. After it was established, I would hit Shield Wall while the two shaman in our group killed the helpers and pet. It worked well until Shield Wall ended - Grimlok chose to Shrink everyone at that point (whee! Fun-sized Tauren!), and although I had everything FIRMLY glued to me, I died a horrible death from all the beatings raining down on me.

Take two, we finally get back to Grimlok (someone PLEASE explain why half the entire damned instance pops inside of 45 minutes.) Noting the defensive take's previous failure, we resolve to beat the crap out of everything before they beat the crap out of us. I pick my big hammer out of my pack and Charge Grimlok with Shield on. I promptly hit Retaliation followed by Challenging Shout, while the shaman plant totems and the priests heal. By time Retaliation is ended, Grimlok is at half HP, his Geomancer buddy is dead, his Brawler buddy is hanging on by a thread, and his pet is also very dead. I switch to Berserker Stance to spam Whirlwind, and finish Grimlok with an Execute that critted for 1189. The only downside is that it took us two tries, and he dropped the cloth armor instead of the juicy polearm.

I guess the lesson learned is that versatility is the key to playing a good Warrior :)