Originally Posted by Njial
After looking at those alpha talents, I feel strange. Instead of the usual man there's a lot of talents that suck, I'm actually wishing I had more talents points. It looks like we are actually going to have to make some pretty significant decisions on some of that stuff.
|
This is so true...
There is no doubt Burning Crusade was a step forward for warrior tanks. We got a damaging ability to spam, improved magical mitigation, Thunderclap in defensive stance, all great things. The one drawback is that the tanking spec got really fixed, Devastate being an absoloute must it drastically reduced the specing flexibility (I for one remember a lot of endgame tanks tanking Naxxramas in hybrid fury/protection specs).
If the talents we saw from the Alpha client reach retail I think the major decision for a warrior tank will be: ThreatSpec or SurvivabilitySpec. ThreatSpec will include the now useful Improved Shield Bash and Improved Revenge, abandoning (i'm guessing) talents like Anticipation and Improved Shield Wall.
On a sidenote, I'm not sure I like Shockwave. I think it's a weak 51points talent. Sure, it helps with AoE agro, sure, it will be dead useful in 10man raids where you simply can't fit a protection paladin in the raid formation. But why waste such an important slot, when you could just change Thunderclap to make it a more viable AoE tool.
Looking at the talents and the so-far-found skills I can't help but dread the future... I can't find something defining, that would make a protection warrior a must to have in the raid. Feral Druids get magical mitigation and an "anti-caster thunderclap"...I'm affraid that unless the boss have an ability requiring a shield (RoS, Illidan etc.) protection warriors will soon start to feel like dead weight and start dissapearing from the endgame. Why take a warrior if a druid can survive equally well, produce equal (if not better cause they are not quite as rage starved) threat, and you have the bonus of Combat Ress and a half-decent dpser when they don't have to tank...
Future will tell...