Warrior tanking build

[NuurAbSaal]

Hello Lurkers.

Looking on the new talent trees and reading a bit in the warrior hybrid thread I was wondering how to spec my warrior on wednesdaay (if the servers make it back up on that day).

We are currently clearing BWL in one evening (if we can still use the Battle Shout tactic or quickly adapt) and are slowly progressing towards our second boss kill in AQ 40.

I have mostly tanking gear, a mix of Wrath and Might plus a Quel, and some dps gear (Bonereaver's Edge, Drake Talon Shoulders, etc.). I am 31 protection specced at the moment. Focus is raid tanking, to a lesser extent some grinding viability.

Here is my proposed build for WoW 2.0, nothing spectacular there:

Code:

--Arms (5 points)

    5/5 Deflection

--Fury (5 points)

    5/5 Cruelty

--Protection (41 points)

    3/3 Tactical Mastery
    5/5 Anticipation
    -
    5/5 Shield Specializatio
    4/5 Toughness
    -
    1/1 Last Stand
    1/1 Improved Shield Block
    3/3 Defiance
    -
    3/3 Improved Sunder Armor
    -
    1/1 Concussion Blow
    -
    5/5 One-Handed Weapon Specialization
    -
    1/1 Shield Slam
    3/3 Focused Rage
    -
    5/5 Vitality
    -
    1/1 Devastate

------------------------------------------------

EDIT: added a link.

I decided to go for Devastate to have one instant attack without the long cooldown of Shield Slam, I do not have a decently slow weapon for it, I'm hoping for a Spineshatter.

I am unsure as to wether I shouldn't just ditch Shield slam and get 20% more block value from my shield instead, I don't like imp. Def. Stance a lot since the reduction is minimal, a 4000 damage Shadow Flame would be reduced to 3840 with the two points I have floating - negligible.


Now, am I missing something obvious? I am aiming for very good physical damage reduction and hope to get a little bit more damage out of Devastate than my current Shield Slams. My main concern is Rage generation, I respessed to 5/5 Unbridled Wrath recently since I usually had too little rage when offtanking for example Firemaw. It helped a bit, I'd lose that again. Huge plus is of course the very cheap Sunder Armor, getting 5 to start using Devastate should be no problem.


I am usually not good at theorycraft and apologize for possible silliness, I am quite confused by all the changes and pretty scared of losing (if only temporarily) my beloved addons.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

take care
Tarabulus (maybe I should ask for a namechange...:))

[Concillian]

Personally I think shield slam is a must have. It will still be the threat tool. Devastate is not much higher threat than a sunder, it won't beat out shield slam in most cases for rage per threat or threat per time... Devastate is useful once you have a full sunder stack to add damage while keeping sunder up for a similar rage per threat as sunder, but slightly better. Based on what I've seen from Kenco's testing of the threat value, I just don't think it will replace shield slam as the primary threat tool.

Devastate has a very small static threat component, most of it's threat comes from the damage done, so it can safely be used as DPS without fear of pulling aggro for how most prot warriors will be geared when offtanking, and for that it is very good. It's balanced to slightly outpace sunder on threat while doing damage, and I think it fits well in that space. It also gives tons of extra solo / grinding utility.

Focused rage will make up more than the rage lost by unbridled wrath and the rage normalization. First tanks won't be too far over the normalization point. Second Unbridled wrath is an average of 1 rage per 2.5 hits... or 1 rage per 5 seconds for a Quel. Focused rage makes up for that as long as you use more than 1 offensive skill every 15 seconds... And I don't care what you tank, you will definitely be using an offensive ability more than once per 15 seconds.

Also vitality adds a very small amount of rage back, about 2/5 in UW worth or so, depending on your strength. You might be underestimating the rage benefit of focused rage compared with unbridled wrath.

I know I haven't given you any clear directions, but the information should help you decide. There isn't really a right answer. threat and health are good (vitality) decreased spell damage is good (imp def stance) added shield block is good for more threat to shield slam (shield mastery) and more rage is good (focused rage). There are some tough decisions in the bottom of the tree, and you just have to decide on a specialty... or you need to drop points from cruelty and become a more dedicated tank... with devastate for grinding, you will still do better solo than before the patch (dual wielding and using devastate for damage).

[Warlock]

Personally I value Shield Slam quite highly even for solo grinding. I actually do more damage with 1H+Shield solo than I do dual wielding with Protection spec - having access to a cheap hard hitting instant is worth more at my gear level (blues plus AV) than the extra white damage. On the PTR I still preferred grinding with 1H+Shield to Dual Wield Devastate, though I wasn't able to give the latter a fair test since I don't have a slow MH.

[NuurAbSaal]

Thank you both for your input. I never got a good offhand weapon so I mostly soloed with sword and board too. I'll give dual wielding a go some time.

The info about rage generation was especially helpful, I am now more comfortable with losing UW

take care
Tarabulus