07-05-2005, 04:23 PM
Gnollguy,Jul 5 2005, 04:05 PM Wrote:So there are a lot of changes coming with 1.6 for warriors and there are some tweaks I wanted to make to Gnolacks build anyway. I've poked around at some of it on the test realms, but I'm still looking for opinions. :)
Anyway here is what I'm looking at.
Protection
Shield Specialization - 5/5
Toughness - 5/5
Iron Will - 5/5
Improved Shield Block - 1/3
Defiance - 5/5
Improved Sunder Armor - 3/3
Improved Taunt - 2/2
Improved Shield Bash - 2/2
Concussion Blow Rank - 1/1
One-Handed Weapon Specialization - 1/5
Shield Slam - 1/1
Protection Total: 31
Fury
Cruelty - 5/5
Improved Demoralizing Shout - 4/5
Unbridled Wrath - 5/5
Piercing Howl - 1/1
Fury Total: 15
Arms
Deflection - 5/5
Arms Total: 5
Debated Points: Unbridled wrath at 5 with Improved Dem shout at only 4. One hand weapon spec (the point to unlock Shield Slam). No tactical mastery at all. Piercing Howl over Anger management.
OK, so why? Well Gnolack is protection spec come hell or high water. It's a bit of a theme. As part of that theme he is an angry little bugger so Fury fits that. But as long as he stays mostly protection, I'm open for change and debate. :) I'll touch on the ones that may not be obvious choices.
Iron Will - It works now. What are the most annoying things to happen when tanking? Getting stunned or charmed (some of the rogue stuns are actually charms). I don't think this will do anything about the knockbacks but I think I want to give it a try. I dropped Improved Bloodrage and Last Stand to get this.
No Anticipation - I don't have it now and I'm not fully geared up either, but I'm sitting at 377 defense already. There are a few key pieces that will push me up to 400 and not hurt my stamina levels at all (In some cases they will improve them). I pretty much never take a crit as it is and I hear that the 420-430 line is where you don't get critted in MC/Onxyia. I'm close to that already. 10 more defense vs Iron Will or Last Stand wasn't worth it.
Defiance - I'm starting to believe this is the most valuable tank talent there is. I can dem shout and piercing howl on a CC'd mob and when it breaks it comes to me. I've played with several protection warriors that don't have this talent and have better one handed weapons than I do and since I have this I can steal aggro from them regularly even when they are pulling the mob and hitting it before me. I've seen how much easier I can hold 2 mobs through all out AoE than other tanks because of this. Everything thing I do in defensive stance gets a 15% aggro bonus. I end up tanking a lot without a lot of CC so I have to hold 3 or 4 mobs, defiance makes that simpler too.
Improved Shield Bash - I don't need it for the top tier talent so why get it? Because I can shut up mobs that do things other than cast spells with it. I can go up smack a caster and pull them back out of patrol range, no need to wait on them to cast or get more threat on a mage or priest using a counterspell or silence.
Shield Slam - I know I'm not all about DPS, but there are fights that even my current build without anger management or Unbridled Wrath that I have rage to burn. Besides it's the new warrior toy. So why not get:
Rank 1
30 Rage
5 yard range
Instant
6 second cooldown
Slam the target with your shield, causing 288 to 352 damage and has a 50% chance of dispelling 1 magic effect on the target. Also causes a moderate amount of threat.
Rank 4 is the same but it does 450 to 550 damage.
1H Weapon Spec - With my current weapon each point is 1.6 DPS in defensive stance. My current weapon Fiendish Machete isn't that good either. 1.6 DPS is that much more threat and isn't too bad for one point. But I could be convinced to put this point somewhere else.
Cruelty - Again I don't do a lot of DPS, but with this talent my crit chance is around 13%. So I crit about once every 8 swings. It's more rage, it's more aggro it's the mob dying a little faster. Dem Shout breaks sleep and I think another CC option I don't want booming voices higher radius. Dem shout gives me a bit more aggro on everything so I refresh is before the cooldown anyway, I don't need the duration of Booming Voice.
Improved Dem Shout - I don't need it for piercing howl and the old skill was 25% maxed. The new talent is 8/16/24/32/40% so 4 points is better than the old 5. The only worry is if I'm looking at the old improved Sunder. Will a 5 point dem shout lock out my 4 point improvement? But this also means AoE mages take less damage if I get that final point too. 5 points pushes this to a drop of I think 196 attack power, I get 184.8. Old maxed was 175.
Unbridled Wrath - Rage is good. I don't tactical mastery or anger management. So I just lost charge and stance switch rage (and there are times when if i miss on the swing I don't have the rage to thunderclap to burn it off before a switch or else I break the CC that is incoming so I will switch right away). 40% chance to get one more rage along with 1 rage every time I block is decent little flow of rage that makes up for no anger management.
Piercing Howl - I debated this skill too. I use it, it's another AoE aggro generator. An AoE Hamstring is nice too. It slows down the mobs that are running out of the flame strike and into Improve Arcane explosion. It gives me a little more PvP utility. It can help with runners a bit. However I don't use it as much as I should right now I don't think.
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I would get at least some Tactical Mastery, so you can switch to Battle Stance for T-Clap/Execute/Mocking Blow, or Berserker Stance for Intercept. Much more useful then Unbridled Wrath imo.
Also, none of the rogue attacks are charms - they are either stuns (Cheat Shot, Kidney Shot), Disorients/Knockouts (Gouge/Sap, you can break out of it with Berserker Rage anyway), or poisons (Blind). The stun resist is not a bad thing, but I don't know if you want to give up Last Stand for it.