Defensive Stance

[Ynir]

Spangles started this thread about defensive stance and asked how to implement it. She took the advice of those who responded and respecified her talents from fury to protection accordingly.

Protection
shield specialization 5
improved shield block 2
improved bloodrage 2
last stand 1
improved revenge 3
defiance 5
improved sunder armor 3
improved taunt 2
improved shield block 2
concussive blow 1
one-handed weapon spec 5
shield discipline 1

Fury
cruelty 5
improved demoralizing shout 5
unbridled wrath 1
piercing howl 1
improved battle shout 2

Note that most of the points outside protection are for shouts, which she considers most important. The new improved thunderclap in the next patch looks pretty good tho, so she will respec for that when the time comes. Comments about this list will be most welcome.

She uses CTMod and has lots of places to put things. But mostly she uses her protection action bar:

1 attack (set to auto)
2 sunder armor / 15 rage
3 revenge / 5
4 concussion blow / 15
5 disarm / 20
6 demoralizing shout / 10
7 battle shout / 20
8 taunt
9 piercing howl / 10
10 shield discipline / 15
- bloodrage
= shield bash / 10

She was 50+ when she switched and capped shortly thereafter. She doesn't solo or quest anymore, but this is how it went before she and her buddies started raiding.

Solo
Death of a Thousand Cuts: She can reliably take out a single mob at her level without potions, which she couldn't do before respec. One add is not a problem: take a potion, but retreat from two or more, since fearing is not an option. Doing one mob is slow attrition using tiny scraps of rage. Since she has the attention of her opponent she doesn't taunt: just sunder, sunder, sunder, with revenge, concussion, and disarm when possible, keep on shouting. Concussion is not as useful as it should be since she doesn't usually have rage to spend while the mob recovers. Shield bash the casters, and anyone else, with the thorium spike. No rage for shield discipline, unfortunately. Switch to berserker when the mob gets to 20% life, hit the 1h/shield <> polearm switch macro that also casts berserker rage and bloodrage, attack, attack, attack to generate more rage, then execute. Wait for 30% to 50% life regain, then repeat.

Two problems here. She hasn't figured out how to switch stances with a hotkey, and clicking the classbar takes a lot of time and reflex. Also, the weapon switch has to be carefully timed. If the switch occurs exactly when a mob hits, one of the switched-out weapons will be lost in another sack. A more reliable macro can be written for Cosmos, but she won't use anything bulkier than CTMod.

Questing with Friends
Teddy Bear's Picnic: Spangles did thirty levels with Flygirl the mage and Magitar the druid. We cut through the game like hot knives through butter. Spangles pulled and tanked, Magitar healed, and Flygirl provided heavy DPS. Shouts, taunt, disarm and shield bash were crucial. Fights were over quickly, one way or the other, so switching out to execute wasn't necessary. One problem was keeping the mobs off the healer. Ideally, Spangles could switch to arms, thunderclap to regain attention, switch back to defense and resume sundering and taunting. Again, too difficult to switch by clicking, so many times the healer had to tank for herself, and Spangles had to use potions to stay alive. Another problem was the mage pulling, gathering attention that Spangles should have held. Best thing to do with a mage that pulls is just to let her die. Another mistake was Spangles pulling while the casters were drinking, being impatient with sitting around. Defense spec in small groups helped mostly by taking the load off the healer and holding aggro better. Killing, per se, was not the issue. Loss of damage output wasn't important with all this DPS incoming from behind.

Instance Groups
Spite & Malice: Everything changed when the focus was on loot. Members of pickup groups often had their own agenda, so the concept of a main tank didn't exist. Spangles settled into a position midway between the pullers and the casters, trying to intercept incoming mobs. Three issues here: timing rage generation to sunder and disarm mobs who were not focused on her, since she didn't pull them. Again, a hotkey stance switch would help to issue thunderclap in a timely fashion, taunt will only pull one. Casters who didn't wait for the tank to intercept were another problem, there was no hope of holding even one mob that was cast on prematurely, which forced retreat and retargeting. Pickup groups didn't always include a priest, so Spangles was often eying the health bar and bandaging instead of concentrating on targeting and aggro management.

Raids
Easy Street: Spangles has been into Strat about ten times. She usually is not main tank since she doesn't know the story lines, so her job is interception. Playing with eight people in back is straightforward. Dying is not an issue unless the whole group wipes, since the healing is often very good. Pulling, when she is asked to, is easier since it always means retreating to the group's line of sight instead of slugging it out in front. Mobs that get past her will be taken care of, so she doesn't shuttle back and forth. With all this DPS flying round she can concentrate on shouting and taunting and carefully timed shield bashing. She often has time to switch stances and (try to) execute. The hardest part is target selection in crowds of mobs amidst aoe and spell graphics.

PvP
Advanced Target Dummy: No future in the battlegrounds for Spangles. She has never defeated a paladin, much less a rogue or a mage. Will she have to respec to fury to survive? If there is a defense spec pvp assasin out there Spangles would like to hear about it.