◊ Quigon

I'd be glad to include this.

Perhaps someone can come up with a better title for this thread then? Perhaps The Warrior Tanking Guide or something. For now it is definitely Prot warrior specific.

 

• Tauftamir

Also, in your Shade of Akama section:

While I realise there are many different ways of doing this, I felt it might be helpful to note that having a Hunter dropping a Frost trap at the door and a Mage casting Frost Nova as the mobs spawn will root them in place and slow them.

This makes getting aggro on the 3 mobs (which will all start hitting you due to being in melee range while they are frozen) exceptionally easy and prevents any mobs at all from getting lose (we even sheep the Rogue and break it last when the other two are dead.)

 

◊ Quigon

I updated macros, specs, a few things about HS, a ring and trinket for aggressive warrior (wow the shapeshifter's signet is amazing).

If you have more to contribute keep it coming.

And to the above post - yes hunters should be doing that, as should shamans have earthbind, but I didn't want to talk too much about what other classes would be doing, otherwise you start getting into a full strategy writeup. If enough of these types of things pop up i'll ammend the section. -For now I'll just note your comment.

 

Bluefish

Going from [Glaive of the Pit] to [The Decapitator] probably makes up for being "less dependent on AP"

 

• Mjollnir

Foresight might hint at keeping it Prot specific. Before you know it, it'll reach 90+ pages. Already we're looking at 5.
Perhaps maybe just a sub-section on other trees' threat abilities other than Prot?

 

◊ Quigon

Then it would be the warrior tanking guide. The length of the subsequent posts isn't much of an issue honestly considering how EJ threads go. They've already added a lot to the guide.

 

Edgewalker

Little late to the keybinding party but

2 Devastate
3 Heroic Strike
4 Shield Slam
5 Shield Block
6 Revenge
Left Mouse Button 1 - Taunt
Left Mouse Button 2 - Intervene

E Bloodrage
R Shield Reflect
T Demo Shout
F Thunderclap

Q Commanding Shout

X Macro That attempts to use both equipped trinkets, shield wall, and last stand
C Last Stand
V Shield Wall
Z Intimidating Shout


Yes I know none of that makes any sense. I have less used stuff bound to Shift + Etc, but it is really unimportant. I individually click trinkets, with the exception of Gnomeregan Blocker, which is normally tied to Shield Slam with auto use.

 

Olon97

Having a very different anectodal experience with my Warrior alt who has used 5/41/15 since 2.3 - I am very happy with the threat output and finding it perfectly viable for the things I want to do. It's nowhere near the insane threat I can put out on my feral druid, but it gets the job done (some ZA OT work as a sub, all Kara OT work, easy and moderate Heroics, eg. the usual alt-warrior PvE stuff). Various overgeared DPS players on 5-mans I've tanked (without raid buffs etc.) have still sustained 800-900 DPS for full runs without pulling aggro - they do keep an eye on Omen, however.

The trick of course is to remember that BT scales with AP, and the threat boost from tactical mastery is simply a multiplier on the raw damage, so to make BT into a decent snap aggro tool you have to use a tanking set with some remaining AP. I look for a few bang/buck items with good STR/AP that also have good armor and stamina values (eg. arena gear) and mix them with traditional tanking pieces. A set with all blues itemized for tanking (which aside from the bold set are regularly without any STR or AP) won't cut it. Those gear tradeoffs would be painful for MT'ing a 25 man boss, but if you're MTing you should be prot anyway.

I'm also very happy with the spec's DPS output, I grind mobs for dailies subjectively just as fast as my feral druid in cat with ~3400 AP, with the exeption of needing to eat/bandage on occasion since BT self heals are a joke compared to imp. LoTP self heals. According to the DPS spreadsheet from these forums, factoring in the 6 expertise rating that will be available in the next minor patch, losing impale, imp. HS, and 3 points of DW spec I go from 1312 DPS to 1225 DPS under optimistic (enh. shaman & feral druid in group, faerie fire and CoR on the boss) raid buffed settings, using my current (alt) gear. The pure DPS spec would be a ~7% increase in DPS for me, but for me that's not worth losing the OT and Heroic tanking capabilities of the hybrid spec.

No idea how the spec would work out on a geared main, or in any sort of end-game role, but the new hybrid builds (at least the fury/prot one) aren't totally worthless.

 

zork

Awesome job Quigon.

I want to write something about keybings too since I find this very important. I made my bindings to allow me to press next melee swings, instants without global cooldown and normal instants at the same time.

Next melee:
Q - Heroic Strike
Shift-Q - Cleave

Instants with no GC:
2 - Block
3 - Reflect

Instants:
E - Shield Slam
R - Revenge
F - Devastate
C - Stun
X - Bash

Other:
1 - Taunt
4 - Disarm

Shift-1 - Bloodrage
Shift-2 - Demo Shout
Shift-3 - Commanding
Shift-4 - Battle

Shift-E - Intervene
Shift-R - Mocking
Shift-F - Thunderclap
Shift-C - AE Taunt

T and G are Trinkets. Shift-T and Shift-G Pots.

F1-F4 are my "oh shit"-buttons for last stand, shield wall and stuff like that.

^ is my Anti-Fear Macro key.

I play with a 6-button system since I find it easier to overview an actionbar of 2x6 instead of 1x12 buttons.
The layout matches my keyboard too. (col 1: 1-6, col 2: q,e,r,f,c,x)

Screen: http://zorktdmog.zo.funpic.de/roth_u...507_183259.jpg

RothUI Download - Tank Guide - Avoidance Calc - Threat Calc - Rothar - darkmasters.de

 

Mayan

Hmm though its been forever since I've actually played, the topic of key bindings intrigues me. I know I've missed but this is what I can remember of the top of my head.

Side note - Sometimes I feel I must be the only one that uses the Function keys. I use macros on those to assist in switching stances.

I put my pinky on the tab button and rest my ring finger on the 2, middle on the 3 and fore on the 5. My thumb rests on the B key. I like to use Q and E to strafe so I leave those unbound. My keyboard has the function keys in a row without a break every 4 keys like many keyboards. Therefore F9-F12 isn't all the way the to the right.

2 heroic strike
3 sunder (would swapped in devastate now)
4 revenge
5 SS
6 shield block
7 shield bash
8 reflect

Oh shit buttons at the end of the line
- last stand
= shield wall

b bloodrage
g concussion blow
t thunderclap

(reactive macro'd set, acts as my default stance switchers)
F1 taunt (defaults to switching me to defensive
F2 execute (defaults to switching me to battle)
F3 berzerker rage (defaults to switching me to zerker)
F4 intercept (defaults to switching me to zerker)
F5 intervene
F6 mocking blow
F7 can't remember (think cleave)


(less reactive non macro'd set aka the shout set)
F8 commanding shout
F9 demo shout
F10 battle shout
F11 challenging shout
F12 Intimidating shout

My set up is basically conformed to the keyboard I use and the access to each key from my finger. I guess at some point its all about muscle control as you simple act/react. Thing is I can't play on other people's keyboard because of this reason. I have a really hard playing on my laptop or on a friend's machine because my hand is not used to the layout of the keys. It's strange but I have a really hard time with this. Anyone else experience this?

 

• Riot

I use WASD, but my keybinds are mainly centered around using the upper bars for common abilities whatever stance I'm in, and truly switching up the main button bar.

Thus:

` - Bloodrage
1 - Revenge
2 - Shield Slam
3 - Shield Block
4 - Taunt
5 - Devastate
6 - Intervene
7- Disarm

Shift 1 - Demo Shout
Shift 2- Commanding Shout
Shift 3 - Shield Bash
Shift 4 - Cleave
Shift 5 - Heroic Strike
Shift 6 - Intimidating Shout
Shift D - Trinket
Shift E - Trinket
Shift T - Last Stand
F - Thunderclap
Shift F - Piercing Howl
G - Concussion Blow
Shift C - Spell Reflect
Shift V - Battle Shout

Basically, since Revenge and Shield Slam is used only once every few seconds, they're a bit off to the side, and I concentrate on being able to use 456 quickly in situations that dictate it. Heroic Strike for me is Shift 5, and Devastate is 5, so it's easy for me to queue them up quickly when I have rage to burn. T is also close by, so I'm very quick on Last Stand.

I keep Shield Wall off to = or something. This is probably one of the few abilities I click, mainly because I usually have a very good idea on when I need to use it, and I need to make sure I'm not on the GCD when I'm using it. There are many times I remember using it well on Gruul right as a Silence occurred and we were on a late growth, or on Prince during phase 2.

I couldn't imagine not using the mouse with my right hand at all times really.

According to the LSAT examination, the opposite of hot is: A) Cold B) Not Hot

 

Caligula

Hmm, maybe I'll give it another shot then. Unfortunately, loot rolls have been somewhat bad for me on weapons for her and I was using Fools Bane for tanking

The DPS output of the spec is nice and hardly a big huge change from the typical 17/44 spec or variation, and should give a nice threat boost. Perhaps I was just using BT too often. Has anyone done any testing on the actual threat multiplier or output from the new MS/BT with TM? If I knew the exact numbers and Threat/Rage it would be quite a bit easier to make a decision on when to use BT vs sunder/hs/revenge.

 

• Zak

Can we just skip the next 2 pages which are clearly going to consist of folk just listing their keybinds. No-one actually cares what you have stuff bound to, but a few lines about _why_ you have things in certain places could be useful.

To put my money where my mouth is: even though ESDF is meant to be 'superior' to WASD, I find my pinky cannot rest easily on LShift from ESDF, so I still use WASD as I get access to shift- and ctrl- keys, meaning more than if I was using ESDF without special keys. So I have 2 binds per key for Q,E,R,T,F,G,Z,X,C,V,B and 1-5, plus a few ctrl- keys too, as well as shift-WASD.

 

JamesVZ

For the Leotheras section, I'd recommend putting in somewhere that capping out +hit and stacking expertise is definitely the way to go for the fight. Misses/dodges/parries will DEFINITELY kill you on the Insidious Whispers portion, even if you're like me and go into it with a full rage bar (also, DON'T MISS THE SPELL REFLECT). I don't have Pepe's yet, so I keep around a [Drape of the Dark Reavers] for the little bit of extra crit, armor, and dodge it provides. I've also socketted a [Bulwark of Kings] with two 8 hit rating gems for a fairly LARGE boost.

I only mention this because last night we lost a tank to his shade, and every once in awhile you'll see something like it pop up. Leotheras *does not hit hard*, so stacking anything but straight aggro/damage gear is probably wrong for this fight!

 

Buanna

The original post has:
The reason you simply cannot spam shield slam and devastate is that each have cooldowns.
Revenge has a 5 second cooldown.
Shield slam has a 6 second cooldown.
Devastate has a 1.5 second global cooldown.

You'll want to change that to Revenge.

 

Moobinator

Question in regards to Weapon choice.

My character profile: The World of Warcraft Armory

I just picked up [Akil'zon's Talonblade] in Zul'Aman last night. I currently have [Fireguard]
with the mongoose enchant.

Debating on which is going to be better in the long run and if its the Talonblade, would Mongoose or Executioner enchant be better?

 

Satrina

Very nice writeup. Nice to see the Shield Bash-Heroic Strike synergy actually mentioned for a change. Here are some things to consider (in no particular order of section, sorry!)

* Here are the first four significants for the ratings, so you can round consistently to two throughout:
Defense: 2.3654
Dodge: 18.9230
Parry: 23.6538
Melee Hit: 15.7692
Melee Crit: 22.0769
Block: 7.8846
Resilience: 39.4231
Expertise: 3.9423

* Not sure if it's intentional or not, but after noting that 2 significant digits are used when available, later text rounds to one in places.

* I note that naked and untalented, Satrina (human) has 3.95% dodge, 5% parry, 5% block against even level shown on my character frame (you can observe that in my current armoury until I spec before raid tonight). That makes this:
only actually true for a night elf:

(5 miss + 3.95 dodge + 5 parry + 5 block + 5 Shield Spec) = 23.95%
20 anticipation * .16 (dodge + parry + block + miss) = 3.2
Total = 27.15 (Night Elf 1% dodge racial makes that 28.15%)

If you have 5/5 Shield Spec and 5/5 Deflection, it is true that any naked level 70 warrior is Shield Block uncrushable. Completely academic, yes =)

* You might want to make mention of how stuns, disarms, attacks from behind, immobilising spells (Karathress) and so forth will fubar your uncrushable state

* Dice is plural. Die is singular.

* You might consider adding this to the description of Taunt's effects:
- You gain complete aggro on the mob at the instant you taunt. Usually you would need 10% more threat to gain aggro (see Focus, below), but a taunt gives you instant aggro on the mob. Of course if other people are generating significant threat on the mob, they could exceed your threat by more than 10% before the taunt debuff wears off, and will gain aggro as soon as it does. There is no limit to the amount of threat you can gain from Taunt.

* Is "aggro" the usual term for the numeric amount of hate you generate on these boards? (I don't read them consistently enough to know). I more often see "aggro" meaning the state where one is the mob's current target, and "threat" as he numeric amount of hate you generate on the way to getting and maintaining aggro. Not a big deal, but could lead to confusion for people used to the latter.

* "You can achieve a 21 shield wall times - Most likely meant "you can achieve a 21 second shield wall time", or "you can achieve 21 second shield walls" ?

* In the Skill Decisions for the threat based build (X b), you recommend letting offtanks help Sundering. Given the bonus Sunder threat you'll gain for landing the first 5 Devastates yourself that doesn't seem to fit with the idea of maximum threat generation.

* Some interesting but flawed math was done on the viability of Major Striking as a passive threat generating enchant as opposed to proc-based Mongoose/Executioner. I keep meaning to look into it in more detail but never find the time to.

* The MS/BT modifier for Tactical Mastery seems to be +21/42/63% threat based on the initial numbers I was given to parse on (this could use more testing to bear it out though)

* In the section on armour, it might be worth mentioning that while mitigation itself is on diminishing returns (as you have already noted), the increase of survivability per X armour added remains constant from 0% mitigation to the hard cap at 75%. That's merely an extra point in support of the reliability of armour.

* Someone will inevitably bring up the fact that people get crit at 490+ defense (rogue type mobs with higher than normal crit chance, etc.), or the ever popular "tiny chance to be crit regardless of defense". May want to address it in some fashion preemptively.

 

JamesVZ

This is basically a holdover from EverQuest. You'll find a lot of the old EQ vets interchange the two words on a whim, simply because they were so used to saying 'aggro' to define all aspects of getting and maintaining aggro. Don't hold it against us .

 

Satrina

I was a monk in EQ, so my experience with aggro there was limited to telling healers that sure, I feigned off the pull...

 

Caligula

This term was used in MUDs far before EQ came out. Actually the first incarnations of the word were used a bit differently than the meaning we currently use. See the top definition here for more info:

Urban Dictionary: aggro

 

Buanna

This guide is missing a very important section: Multi-mob tanking.

Warriors are built to tank one thing, but tend to fall apart against 2. If you want this to be complete, it'd be best to describe effective strategies/macros to control more than one mob at a time.

 

Caligula