Warrior Build

[Boutros]

Minor nit first, talents can only give you +5% parry or crit, still the point is taken.  I'll have to admit I'm not as well versed in high level plate items as I am in cloth but my intuition says that if I get those items that give me +defense (which I know can blow anticipation out of the water) I will lose some stamina and agility or strength in exchange.  I still see your point though.
[right][snapback]69597[/snapback][/right]

I was simply unclear. I know that Deflection and Cruelty give 5% bonuses, I was commenting that in order for an item to give double the bonus of a full investment in those skills it would have to give +10% crit or parry. And no items give more than +2% chance to crit or parry, whereas items like Legplates of the Eternal Guardian and Deathbone Chestplate give double the defense of the full Anticipation bonus and even moderately powerful items like Helm of The Mountian and Stoneform Shoulders give as much or more defense than 5 talent points.

I'll admit that Last Stand is not an amazing skill, but Improved Blood Rage is pretty good, and Last Stand is only one point for some potential utility. Back when I was defensive speced it saved my life a couple of times.

My encounters with casters using multiple spell types has been different from yours. For a couple of levels I fought the Dunemaul Ogres in Tanaris for both experience and insane mageweave drops. My par for the meleers was 30 seconds and 15% of my life, but for the casters I could expect 15 seconds and maybe 10% of my life (but with greater variance) if I did everything right, but usually immediately after I pummeled a shadow spell they would cast a fire spell, or vice versa. If my pummel had a silence component the standard deviation of my life loss would go down and my average downtime would decrease too. Those aren't the only casters who use multiple schools, just off the top of my head the Deadwood Furbolgs cast Nature and Shadow, the Jaedenar Cultists and Bloodsail casters cast Shadow and Fire, some of the Scarlet casters cast Holy and Fire. I'm not sure that's a smoking gun but I feel there is utility there. Further, if silenced the caster will have no choice but to melee, ensuring that you could lead a caster back to a safe area during a pull.

I feel that Anger Management is pretty weak. Despite having 31 points in the arms tree I still managed to skip this skill. While it does give a tiny amount of rage over time while in combat I didn't find it noticeable, and I always execute or refresh Battle Shout after a solo fight, or finish a fight with no rage left while grouping.

Another place you could think about putting points is a couple staples of the Arms tree, Improved Charge and Overpower. Even while tanking I can't resist switching to battle stance for a quick overpower and virtually guaranteed crit if I see "Dodge". And really the additional 6 rage all at once can make a significant difference in how a fight progresses ( you can almost always swap stances and whirlwind right away, and I can usually Moral Strike 3.2 seconds earlier).

Really you have a lot of options, I think the core of your build, Concussion Blow Tactical Mastery and Piercing Howl is strong, and the rest could go a lot of differet places and improve your offence of further strengthen your defense.

I can't answer your Deep Wounds question right now, but I can do some testing on that. But I think most Arms Warriors get it for two reason: 1. Having two dots on a rogue makes it impossible for them to Vanish and Cheapshot no matter how good their timing 2. it's a prerequisite for the very nice Impale talent.