The Defense Warrior in PvP

[Thawwing Light]

Stun and charm effects have been the bane of my tanking career in late-game content. With Iron Will finally working (to some extent, it doesn't appear to stack with the orc racial ability), I have decided to give it a go. Groups should be prepared to handle the worst case as before, but when that 15% resist kicks in, it could make many of the hardest encounters I've fought so much smoother.

A couple examples that come to mind:
SM Strath 5-man, final boss opting to mind control me is annoying.
DM mobs/bosses knocking back for reduced aggro (esp. King & Prince). Not a problem with a methodical group, but can frequently become aggro pinball encounters if you're not given a large enough aggro lead.

Not to mention, the possibility of passively messing up a stunlock rogue's cheesy perma-stun combo in PvP is too tempting to pass up.

I'm not a fan of last stand. I like my loss of life to be as predictable as possible, and I play with enough different healers that I wouldn't expect one to start anticipating when I would be using last stand. That and the 2 pre-req points are a poor value since the patch that changed the bloodrage skill, IMO - I use non-talented bloodrage regularly and the HP hit is already negligible.

As for the new conc blow, the change is a huge stealth boost to its rage efficiency. You can now Whirlwind an AoE pull using a 2H and immediately stun one elite without swapping to a faster weapon, something I would never have done with the old conc blow (losing a full swing's rage on a 3.8 speed weapon is very pricey). Even with fast daggers, the old conc. blow could be frustrating in PvP due to people moving away before you get the stun off. On-demand instant stun is nice, esp for interrupting short cast time spellcasting.

I don't generally try to stack conc blow on a mob others have been stunning anyway (or even that I've been revenge-stunning). It's best use is as a lead-off stun or as a quick switch to a target you don't have time to tank properly, stun it, and go back to higher priority mobs.
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What exactly does Iron Will give a 15% chance to resist? Thott lists it as Stun and Charm... is this accurate? If this is the case, I don't see why it would effect knockback, which is what that boss is using, if I'm understanding you right. Mind Control is the only Charm effect I can think of, and there are only a few bosses (that one in Strat, possibly Arugal's Curse from SFK) that use it, leaving its utility to 'against enemy priests, rarely' for the charm portion.

As for preventing stunlocking Rogues... I'm not really that sure on this one. half of a Rogue's stunlock isn't stuns, it's disorients, with gouge and blinding powder thrown in the mix to keep the diminishing returns from hurting too badly. That, and it's only 1/6 of the time, against one of maybe 3 stuns... I just find this rather weak. I suppose the stun resistance is much better than the charm resistance, but it still doesn't seem like too much of a boost.

I do understand where you're coming from on imp. Bloodrage. They nerfed the damage down to 6% of your HP max, and improving it cuts it to 3%... I'll agree that's a pretty weak improvement. I didn't test out Last Stand all that often, but when I had it, it saved me a few times. More frequent were the times when I forgot to use it and it may have saved me, and it did kill me once when I used it while DoTed. I think it's a neat gimmick, and useful, but by no means necessary. Hitting it when things go south and the healer is busy heal other people was my main tactic, and while it never prevented a wipe, a few times it saved me. I can understand this not being used...

Still, there are plenty of things I would rather take. Imp. Sunder comes to mind, as it can account for 15 rage saved over 5 stacked sunders, and 12 rage is almost instantly available after Bloodrage with Tactical mastery. Full defiance strikes me as more useful, as 15% more rage while in Defensive stance is a substancial boost. Full Toughness would be an improvement... at endgame levels, there is a nasty diminishing return on armor, but another 400-800 armor is at least a decent boost. I'd even consider Anticipation worth a look, as while its boost can be acquired from gear, it's the same with Toughness, and the reduced chance to be Crit upon might help.

Really, there's a tough call between a lot of mediocre skills. I suppose I really can't disagree too strongly, but I am not sure the marginal value you've picked is the best marginal value :D

More to the point, it sounds like Conc. Blow rocks even more now. Your situational use of it makes a lot of sense as well, given its power and its cost. That sounds like a great boost to Warrior PvP utility, adding another interrupt that's quick and reliable.