Warrior tanking at level 60

I recently saw a post on the forums about a tank who was having issues holding threat at 60 in the Outland dungeons.  When I check his build I noticed a lot of his talents were placed in trees other than prot, and he'd only gone down 32 point in the protection tree.

How's this relevant you ask?  Because today's post is about Warrior tanking at level 60!

I think the problem is that for a lot of other classes or even specs, you're required to put points into other trees than your main one.  While this is true for protection warriors as well, you need to have all 51 points in prot at level 60 to tank effectively.  That build over on the left is a pretty good start.  You have wiggle room if you don't care for one or two talents, and those two points in improved revenge are up for debate since 3.3 hit, but this is about what you should be at to tank Ramparts, Blood Furnace, and whatever else post-60.



Your basic rotation will be the same as at 80 more or less, Charge, Shockwave, Shield Slam, T-Clap, Cleave on packs, or SS, then Dev spam on single targets.  Overall, you'll get the hang of it, and while the basics are always the same, everyone has their prefered method and "rythm" to tanking from what I've seen.  I prefer mobility, charging in and out of packs, while I know others prefer  getting everything lined up and stopping movement.  Individual preference aside, as long as you're holding the threat, there's no "wrong" way to tank (although there are probably folks who will say otherwise).

While you're leveling your best bet is to glyph for revenge and devastate for the time being, and then reglyph your revenge out for blocking once you get closer to 80, or if you find you're never using revenge or getting rage starved.  Revenge is not as useful as it once was and you may be better served with a glyph of Shockwave, Sunder, or Cleave in it's place.

As an aside, a common mistake I see people making is trying to stack Defense at level 60-70, and putting points in Parry.  Don't do this (well, you can, I'm not the boss of you, but whatever).

Those points serve much better by putting 3 points in Armored to the Teeth and filling out your remaining Prot Talents (Focused Rage, Critical Block, and Damage Shield).  Don't worry about filling the points in Parry until 65 or so.  You'll want it maxed in time to tank Nexus and Utgarde Keep when you hit 70, but with all the changes that occurred in 3.0 (and who knows, possibly before), you're better served by Armored to the Teeth and then stacking stamina and Strength.

If you can get it, "... of the Champion" gear is fantastic, closely followed by "... of the Beast" and then "... of the Bear." Don't bother with Soldier gear.  Also, previously mediocre rewards, such as the plate gear you get in Zangarmarsh with the 2 or 3 sockets, is now a great thing, just stick some cheap northrend green or blue quality stamina or strength gems and you'll have a perfect piece for tanking and questing that'll be better than most, if not all quest rewards for the next 5 levels.

From here, you can pretty much follow this guide for your pulls and attack priority and you'll be all set.

Shockwave: how it's used and how it works

Shockwave is one of the best attacks in a Protection Warrior's arsenal. It's a cone attack with a fairly wide spread and can stun any number of enemies, on top of providing a big burst of damage and threat!

Here's how it works:

When you shockwave, the cone goes out about 90 degrees and stuns+damages mobs within the cone:

The problem here is that you've generally got one or two mobs outside that cone that will not be hit. Due to mob pathing, you need to wiggle a bit to get the mobs in a proper line. Some people like to back up a bit and then hit Shockwave so that the mobs up close are hit at the wider point in the cone.



I've found that sidestepping works better and helps you keep your momentum in the fight. You want to side-strafe around the mobs a bit, and then jump-turn (you are mouse turning, right? I'll talk about that in another post) to face the mobs and then shockwave like so:


By doing this you force the mobs into a straight line. Since you're still moving in the same direction when you do the jump turn, the mobs will not scatter, and will all be caught in the Shockwave blast.



Another viable method for pesky mobs that don't want to line up is to jump straight through them, rotate 180 degrees in the air (to face where you were just standing) and hit shockwave before you land like so:


What happens when you do this (most of the time) is that running (or in this case, jumping) through mobs alters their pathing and they end up bunching as they attempt to run to your path (as shown by the red X's as opposed to the light blue former placement).



Doing this also let's you position yourself to your liking while the mobs are stunned, and when they wake up from the stun they won't move behind you and force the "tank dance," as they so commonly do.

Give it a try some time, you may be surprised, not only by Shockwave's usefulness, but also by how much these little tricks can improve it's efficiency.

Warrior tank attack priority for dummies

That's right, priority, not rotation.

Warrior tanks, unlike our DPS counterparts, do not have a rotation. We have a priority. It is important to follow it as well as you can for optimal threat, but situations arise that can force us to use a different move.

Priority is as follows: Shield Slam -> Shockwave -> Devastate. Heroic Strike or Cleave should be queued on every weapon swing, HS on bosses and singles, cleave on packs, doesn't matter how you do it, my preference is to macro Heroic Strike to Devastate and Revenge so I never have to think about it, and to Cleave manually.

That's it since 3.3 hit. Revenge is not nearly as useful as it was prior. With the recent devastate buff Revenge is nigh useless unless you're fighting trash and need a possible stun, or if you're low on rage.

Basically you want to do this:

1. Shield Slam
2. If Shield Slam is on CD, Shockwave.
3. If SS and SW are on CD, Devastate your ass off.
4. If Devaste procs Sword and Board, go back to 1.
5. if you're out of rage and Sword and Board hasn't procc'd (and Bloodrage is on CD), hit Revenge.

If you're fighting trash packs, don't forget to tab through mobs to cycle threat to each.
Best bet is to start with your Charge, queue a Cleave while Charging in, Shield Slam the first mob, queue your next Cleave, sidestep-turn and Shockwave, and start tabbing and Devastating each mob. After that only the best DPSer will rip one from you, and by then the mob will probably be close to dead anyway.

And that's it. You've got plenty of other situational moves, but those are the important ones.
Feel free to comment and tell me I'm wrong, I probably forgot some stuff here, but otherwise that's it. Go tank. :D

T9 stuffs not to buy

Some may call this common sense, but don't ever buy the T9 50 badge helm. Save up for the 75 badge helm from the Triumph vendor, it's much better.

Get the T9 Chest, Legs, Shoulders, and gloves for the 4-pc bonus. But DO NOT buy that craptastic 50 badge T9 helm.

That is all.

Addendum - I did not buy the 50 badge helm, it sucks. I saved up for the better one because it rocks.

Engineering: a Warrior's best friend

Engineering is my favorite profession in the game. Seriously, it makes my face go all happy like this:





Yes, there are better professions out there for stat min-maxing and Engineering is considered the "fun" profession (which is all good in my world, fun is cool), but I think it's a bit underrated. Engineering is one of the best professions you can possibly take as a tanking warrior.

Not only do you get cool toys like "ROCKET PUNCH!" and Nitro Boosts for your DPS set, plus your "Jump off a cliff get out of PvP free" card, you get some great tanking toys too.

Reticulated Armor Webbing is hands down the best possible tanking glove enchant you can get your hands on. The Flexweave is extra mitigation and threat on your cloak if you've already got 540 defense or higher, and gets plenty of use if you're like me and enjoy taking skydives from high places. :D

Above and beyond those is the bombs. Bombs, bombs, bombs, these need to be in your rotation NOW. Ok, not all of them, but the Saronite bombs are a huge boon for the level 80 PvE Warrior tank.

Warriors don't get a lot of AoE tools for threat management, and these grenades give us a much needed advantage for holding AoE threat against a heavy DPS group. There's really no limit on the number of mobs you can hit with a grenade, and it's great for pulling threat back on runners, starting an AoE pull for bonus threat, or just extra DPS and threat against a boss. Plus, they're only on a 60 second timer, meaning you'll be able to toss one at least every other pull and several times on bosses.

Oh, and bonus: these babies are off the Global Cooldown. You can use them any time their internal CD is up and it won't affect your attack priority or your queued up Heroic Strikes or Cleaves at all. 100% pure profit.

While Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are the accepted "min-max" professions for tanks, I think for warriors specifically, Engineering is best, paired with either Blacksmithing or Jewelcrafting for the best bang for your tanking buck.

Gearing up for the newly 80 Warrior Tank

With the advent of patch 3.3, a lot of gear guides have been lost in the shuffle. Not many people want to bother learning what dungeon drops what when you can simply get badges and get gear. However, to be taken seriously as a tank, you should be doing at least the bare minimum. Crafted and rep gear will get you where you need to be to start tanking and can be attained the moment you hit 80 if not before. After all, if you want to tank, you may as well tank. Otherwise your only option is to queue as DPS for your badges.

This is a guide for gearing up on crafted, Reputation, and quest gear only.

What you will need to tank:

• 540 defense (535 for heroics, but you should shoot for 540)
• 21000 HP (you can and should go for at least 23000, it's doable in crafted gear)
• Roughly 20000 Armor

Here's what you need to do it:

• Weapon: Hammer of Quiet Morning - reward from lvl 74 quest "Ragemane's Flipper" in Zul'Drak. There aren't any really good crafted weapons. If you miss out on this one you can use whatever you have. You'll use this forever, pretty much. I held mine until the Red Sword dropped in H.UP, and later picked up the Peacekeeper from H.ToC.
  
• Shoulders: Tempered Saronite Shoulders
  
• Head: Tempered Saronite Helm - The Crusader's Resolution is a good alternative, but the Tempered Helm has more Defense for capping. If you're an Engineer, your Goggles will do you justice all the way until the 75 triumph badge T9 equivalent headpiece.
  
• Legs and Hands: Daunting handguards and Legplates - These are fantastic and cheap, and probably the two best starter tank pieces you can get your hands on. While you're at it, throw a Jormungar kit on the Legplates if you can afford it.
• Neck: Burning Skull Pendant - easily acquired on the Auction, and usually cheap. This is good since neckpieces are hard to come by. If you can't get it, just spend your first 19 badges on the conquest neckpiece.
• Feet: Tempered Saronite Boots or the Toxin Tempered Sabatons from Ebon Hold rep (honored) which you will already have just by finishing the Shadow Vault quest chain. The Toxin Tempered Sabatons are the better choice in my opinion, but either is fine.
• Waist: For the belt there's only one option: Tempered Saronite Belt. You'll hold onto this at least until Skadi's belt drops in H.UP.
• Cloak: Tattered Castle Drape is a good bet if you're close to the defense cap and just need a bit more. If you're a bit further from capping, Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions will be it for Honored reputation with Wyrmrest (you'll need to do pretty much all the quests in Dragonblight for this, but it can be attained at 80 without dungeon farming).
• Shield: There are also few good options for this. Your best bet is to save up some gold for mats and have a Titansteel Shield Wall crafted. It won't be wasted, The only other useful shield at this level is Royal Crest of Lordaeron, which is a sidegrade. Your next real upgrade only comes if you plan to raid, or if you get a lucky drop in reg HoR ICC 5-man.
• Ranged slot: When I hit 80 I had an Armor Plated Shotgun crafted for this one, but you're better off just using whatever you have and saving up 25 badges for the tank thrown weapon from the triumph vendor now.

And that's it for the gear. Next you need Enchants:

• Cloak: TitanWeave
• Shield: Defense
• Weapon: eh, go cheap and get a Titanium Weapon chain, you'll need the hit. Later, when you get a more solid weapon upgrade you'll probably want Mongoose if you're hit-capped (263 hit, I think) or close to it, if you need hit get Accuracy. Any other weapon enchants are debatable.
• Boots: 22 Stamina or Tuskarr's Vitality. Tuskarr's is better overall even though it's less stamina, but I think the 22 Stam enchant is cheaper.
• Gloves: Your choice. As an Engineer I'd recommend Reticulated Armor Webbing, and I'll discuss more on the benefits of Engineering as a Warrior in a later post. Threat is a good choice, as is Assault or anything else that will add to your damage, and therefore your threat.
• Shoulders: Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle is a good start. You need all the defense you can get at this gear level.
• Head: Eh, go cheap, you'll be replacing this gear pretty quick. Anything not yet enchanted can have a Heavy Borean Armor kit for extra health.

With all this stuff you should be at 540 Defense, if just barely (if you're at 539 or something, don't sweat it, you'll get better gear running heroics and only NEED 535 for those), and between 22000 and 24000 health. You may be lacking a bit for hit and Expertise, these can be made up for with Elixir of Accuracy and Rhinolicious Wormsteaks if need be.



And that's pretty much it. More than enough to get you started, and all that's left is to go practice your skills.

Warrior tanking is fun first and foremost.

As a warrior tank, I think I'm defying convention at the moment. In vanilla WoW, Warriors were ubiquitous with tanking, but these days we've seen our fair share of nerfs to the point that we've dropped down on the list and are much less popular as tanks. It's not to say we're not viable, the content out now can be tanked by a Warrior all the way through ICC in my opinion, but viable is not necessarily optimal.

I do believe end game has often been skewed toward the idea of paladin tanks. In Vanilla it was undead in the Plaguelands, though Pallies weren't totally viable as tanks then and lacked a lot of what symbolizes the class today. In TBC Pallies hit their stride, and the place was full of demons. Now in Wrath, it's back to the undead; that alone gives Paladins an inherent advantage.

I have a paladin tank, and I must admit, it's a threat machine. It can survive wipes that would kill other tanks due to inherent self healing. It's a powerful tank, the Paladin. But it's not the end all. The Warrior has more varied tools at his disposal, more utilities for snap aggro, and (this part is subjective) is more fun.

On my paladin I find myself falling asleep behind the wheel. I don't react as quickly to emergency situations, partly because holding threat is so easy once you have it, but also because it's generally easier and I take that for granted. On my Warrior I'm actively driving, so to speak, fighting tooth and nail for threat, and the general feeling is much more visceral. On my warrior I'm not generating threat and surviving. I'm controlling the fight and winning.

My warrior has no light behind him, he's just a dude with a sword(or axe) and a shield and ready to kill something to protect something. That's warrior tanking to me. I'm here to make them mad and make them die, and I love doing it.