Defensive Stance

[Concillian]

Interesting.  In PvE, I'm always using Sunder, since it's my preferred dump for spare Rage.  In PvP, though, I tend to use Piercing Howl when I have spare Rage.  Otherwise, Whirlwind and Demoralizing Shout take up most of my Rage.

Thanks for the analysis Concillian.
[right][snapback]66926[/snapback][/right]

One of the people in the other forums I posted noted that he recently switched to a strategy of Charge, Sunder, Sunder before anything else (with imp. Charge he could do this with just one swing) He noted that paladins were much easier. I'm not one to PvP much, so I can't say for sure.

In principle though, Sunder early should help a LOT, as not only does it make your rage more efficeint in that the same rage causes more damage, but it makes it easier to generate rage because your normal hits do more damage than they otherwise would.

The fact that it is an instant is also important, as you don't want to waste rage on a skill that will also eat your next opportunity to generate it. That is perhaps what frustrates me so much about playing a warrior. Without Mortal Strike there are very few effective ways of using rage. The rage cost of something like Heroic strike isn't really 15 rage, it's more like 25 rage, because you don't generate rage on a strike you normally would. You're spending ~25 rage on doing what is really a pretty petty amount of damage.

Given all that, I think Sunder is a surprisingly good way to spend rage. Whirlwind is definitely good too, but rage cost is high, and you have to be in berserker, so you're taking more damage. Max rank demo lowers damage done to you by at least 10 DPS for 30 seconds, so that's not bad either, buys you an extra hit or so.