Severence reborn - Prot Warrior in a new era
Posted 11-05-2008 at 09:40 AM by CKaz
I enjoyed my time as a Prot Pally, I won't kid you - it's a refreshing change from my Warlock. If I did a hack and slash, it was gonna be with a shield.
Pally seemed to be THE shield class [at least from casual perusal]. Until recently. The Protection Warrior looks to take that mantle - well or rather shield, away.
No QQ, just more pewpew - recent changes had me reactivate my Warrior to give it a go. He had managed to get to 40, get his horse... and sat. It just hadn't pulled me in, and a bunch of alt tries later, new changes called his number.
I'm on the cusp of his journey but I'm excited... there are some really neat, interesting synergies here with Talents and Glyphs that appeal, and not just in the Prot tree. Frankly my two 'bigger' toons [Warlock and Pally] are jealous. But this story is not about them.
Knocking the dust off and re-oiling the armor, Severence found himself at 42 after picking his new shiny 3.0 spec and trying out Dual-Wield Fury. He wasn't quite the whirling dervish I had hoped, and certainly when things went bad didn't have a lot to fall back on [Human, no racial help there].
Arms was compelling and many builds were suggested for it, but it really had you picking a weapon [type]. Also oddly enough the best weapon talent seemed to be axe/polearm, the only line-up Humans didn't have expertise in. Plus I had a juicy 2H Sword and Mace.. even then I'm not a fan of 'this weapon type only' talents ever since Diablo. Seems to breakdown the power of your diversity.
Enter Protection. I'd heard good things, but being a Prot Pally level since the early 30s through Outlands, I wondered what the Warrior offered there. Digging in I get the impression I'm at the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
The talent spec I arrived at after much perspiration is http://www.wowarmory.com/character-t...od&n=Severence
Glyphs to go with the build [2 major, 1 minor available @40]
major - Revenge [free Heroic]
major - Heroic Strike [10 rage on crit]
minor - Bloodrage [1/2 hp hit]
I had toyed with minor - Thunderclap [+2 yds] and thought that'd be a nice add in grouping. As my focus remained [primarily solo] levelling for now though, I thought I'd get more mileage out of sapping my HPs a bit less/synergy with my Imp Bloodrage.
Originally planning to focus on Shield Slam, which is still a big part of the picture, Revenge/Heroic synergies I'd seen come up in a couple threads didn't disappoint, and the combo here is just tremendous, so much so my first Warrior Macro was born, and sat in place of my normal Revenge -
/stopcasting
/cast Revenge
/cast Heroic Strike
Incite and Imp Revenge make this that much more nasty, and if I wasn't 'point starved' I'd have dodge and parry adding to this as well - all in due time. In fact I do wonder if maybe dodge > shield spec right now, but I do like the +rage idea as well as the mob hitting my shield spike and working well with critical block and damage shield when I get there.
Basically Severence just needs to get out there and find out - there's only so much theorycrafting one can do. If he's still getting pelted, dodge might be added quickly, taking shield spec and/or toughness points. Parry may well have to wait at least a little while though, as there's so much goodness up the tree.
So after a bit of retooling and apologizing to his horse for being stabled so long, Severence sets out to try his new abilities.
Pally seemed to be THE shield class [at least from casual perusal]. Until recently. The Protection Warrior looks to take that mantle - well or rather shield, away.
No QQ, just more pewpew - recent changes had me reactivate my Warrior to give it a go. He had managed to get to 40, get his horse... and sat. It just hadn't pulled me in, and a bunch of alt tries later, new changes called his number.
I'm on the cusp of his journey but I'm excited... there are some really neat, interesting synergies here with Talents and Glyphs that appeal, and not just in the Prot tree. Frankly my two 'bigger' toons [Warlock and Pally] are jealous. But this story is not about them.
Knocking the dust off and re-oiling the armor, Severence found himself at 42 after picking his new shiny 3.0 spec and trying out Dual-Wield Fury. He wasn't quite the whirling dervish I had hoped, and certainly when things went bad didn't have a lot to fall back on [Human, no racial help there].
Arms was compelling and many builds were suggested for it, but it really had you picking a weapon [type]. Also oddly enough the best weapon talent seemed to be axe/polearm, the only line-up Humans didn't have expertise in. Plus I had a juicy 2H Sword and Mace.. even then I'm not a fan of 'this weapon type only' talents ever since Diablo. Seems to breakdown the power of your diversity.
Enter Protection. I'd heard good things, but being a Prot Pally level since the early 30s through Outlands, I wondered what the Warrior offered there. Digging in I get the impression I'm at the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
The talent spec I arrived at after much perspiration is http://www.wowarmory.com/character-t...od&n=Severence
Glyphs to go with the build [2 major, 1 minor available @40]
major - Revenge [free Heroic]
major - Heroic Strike [10 rage on crit]
minor - Bloodrage [1/2 hp hit]
I had toyed with minor - Thunderclap [+2 yds] and thought that'd be a nice add in grouping. As my focus remained [primarily solo] levelling for now though, I thought I'd get more mileage out of sapping my HPs a bit less/synergy with my Imp Bloodrage.
Originally planning to focus on Shield Slam, which is still a big part of the picture, Revenge/Heroic synergies I'd seen come up in a couple threads didn't disappoint, and the combo here is just tremendous, so much so my first Warrior Macro was born, and sat in place of my normal Revenge -
/stopcasting
/cast Revenge
/cast Heroic Strike
Incite and Imp Revenge make this that much more nasty, and if I wasn't 'point starved' I'd have dodge and parry adding to this as well - all in due time. In fact I do wonder if maybe dodge > shield spec right now, but I do like the +rage idea as well as the mob hitting my shield spike and working well with critical block and damage shield when I get there.
Basically Severence just needs to get out there and find out - there's only so much theorycrafting one can do. If he's still getting pelted, dodge might be added quickly, taking shield spec and/or toughness points. Parry may well have to wait at least a little while though, as there's so much goodness up the tree.
So after a bit of retooling and apologizing to his horse for being stabled so long, Severence sets out to try his new abilities.
Total Comments 10
Comments
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Interesting point in case you go back to arms or fury: The way you are playing at 40 is the way you could tank off spec. thunderclap, shield slam, revenge, and heroic strike. But honestly, once you get a taste of the later talents, its hard to go back.Posted 11-05-2008 at 10:55 AM by hanago 
- Hey Ckaz,
I am glad you are giving the prot warrior a chance. I personally love it and my T5/6 Priest never gets played anymore because of it.
I just wanted to suggest a different macro for you in regards to revenge/heroic strike. I am not sure if you are button masher like myself, but here is what I use:
/castsequence reset=2 Revenge, Heroic Strike
This macro allows you to hit it over and over again and if revenge didnt go off it wont cast heroic strike. I started finding myself wasting rage on HS at the begining of 3.0 because revenge wasnt hitting and my macro was still casting HS. Now I can mash this new macro and if revenge misses or whatever it wont cast HS and waste my rage.
Just a suggestion.
Posted 11-05-2008 at 03:31 PM by Wafflehowse - ooh excellent, I've been combing my combat log to see what did and didn't fly but I've only done a little testing and on easy mobs so far - I'll take the tip, thanks
Posted 11-05-2008 at 04:02 PM by CKaz - Funny, I'm doing almost the exact same thing. I have played a prot pally since Vanilla WoW and now I am levelling up a warrior (dinged 39 last night, I get Shield Slam tonight!). I just find it more "fun" playing the warrior. I feel kind of wierd though...I've been playing pally for so long and fighting the good fight convincing people that I can tank, only to abandon the class now that we really are MT viable. Heh.
Posted 11-06-2008 at 07:26 AM by kaanman36 -
Uldaman entrance, now 43
You'll love it, Shield slam is a brute and will really help your DPS - you're just going to need decent rage coming. I'm pretty comfortable with my build now pushing myself in a bit of 'sink or swim' manner, digging into Uldaman solo. It wasn't easy, but I got pretty far.
I wouldn't dive in quite yet yourself, but @42 I was able to do basically the whole front, coming across and downing Revelosh, and he was nice enough to provide a nice upgrade to my boots
I won't kid you there will be dicey times, and frankly I was happy when I dinged 43 near the end of my foray. I used every special I have and some pots for the times I couldn't stop all the runners and was on to the next fight. Even then I know I wasn't 100% optimal (e.g. stance dance and pull out retaliate - I stayed in Def stance the whole time) but frankly this was my first real dive back into the [prot] warrior, and a lot has changed.
You focus on the Oracles first - when you get 2 you almost have to resign yourself to simply outlasting them a bit. Do what you can, but it's tough keeping off all the heal wards and waves with more than one. Outside the enraging goon types mobs there like to run.
It's probably not the best way to get XP, but I had rested to burn off and frankly, I'm not learning my rotations on single mobs and fed-ex questing
so I found this perfect. Mobs were pretty much elite high 30s throughout.
Shield Spike/Block isn't the end all/be all that the Prot Pally is used to - we were redoubt/holy shield/retribution aura fiends, even original BoSanc adding to the block/hit tallies and we could build in hit point return.
Prot Warrior is more of a smack one target down, move to the next one, while surviving everything. Dodge still has very nice synergies, and its not such a big deal that you're actually pushing down the block table. Without the 'hit me anyways' factor, I know I'll eventually add Dodge, it's just a matter of when [respec and/or later nab] - right now I'm adding Focused Rage.
I found that where sometimes I almost had too much Rage I didn't know what to do with it, most of the time I'd find myself just waiting a little bit here and there to spam - I think 3/3 in that talent might be the perfect solution.
So there's another +/- I'd mention to the above, and mostly I find it a plus - unlike the prot pally, the prot warr doesn't need a *ton* of mobs to truely shine. That said from what I see so far, I'd also say a prot pally can handle many more mobs at once.
In reality though that's not a big deal - my prot pally would struggle to grab huge numbers without many ranged options, mobs would spring back, you get dazed trying to make it happen, etc. Reality is it'd even be frustrating.
Prot Warr tho shines in the middle range *and* handles the caster(s) better. You have more talents to silence and stun, and you single target spike. So combined it's less of an issue. Sure you want them in melee range and they cause trouble, but the silence/stun/spike helps against healers and dps casters alike. Even with my Pally having a little help [BE] this doesn't match the Prot Warrior utility.
Is it perfect? No, I still find I can feel like I'm one skill/CD short when I have running caster(s) as Daze is stacked on a silence... maybe I add a stance dance hamstring as I get things worked out. Still, I feel I'm able to handle casters better with the more tools and [much] better single target spike at my disposal.Posted 11-06-2008 at 11:46 AM by CKaz - Hmmmmm anyone found that holy grail of a macro that you hit once and will cast revenge then HS without casting HS if revenge didn't cast?
Posted 11-06-2008 at 05:35 PM by LxDraco - Wafflehouse's suggestion above didn't do it for ya?
Seems to work OK for me... something a little odd about it yet when it lights up/refreshes, but for the most part seems to do exactly what is desired here.Posted 11-07-2008 at 08:12 AM by CKaz -
another foray deeper into Uldaman, ends up 44
Probably my last foray solo into Uldaman, but I went a lot deeper in. Did pretty well but eventually the equipment went red and it was time to call it a run
What worked well - the front area was easy for me now as I'd worked out my rotation. Still there were dicey times when I'd get more than 3, or more than 1 oracle. Also Revelosh + oracle + melee elite mobs gets dicey. In all cases though just kept at it and used cooldowns and a heal pot if needed.
What didn't work well - w/o particularly strong reflective tools yet, my theory proved out - I was swarmed enmasse by scorpions, and they'd down me, even on a second big attempt where I avoided any elite add. I can see up the tree I'll get some help, but right now w/o HP return and big reflective damage, spamming TC and keeping them dmg debuffed while cycling through targets wasn't enough.
I'd take the majority, use retaliation, blow my regular cooldowns, take a pot... and run to my body and followup with the stragglers. Not horrible at all, just a little underpowered for a mega-zerging. I was close enough to think a 'warrior prot pro' and/or someone with a little better equip/any enchants might have gotten past this, too.
[I plan to activate my Warlock for some dailies cash and assistance shortly, but for now I wanted to keep him well equipped w/o focusing on overly-twinked assistance - plus my server's AH is stupid expensive
and that's when I can find what I'm looking for.]
Outside that nothing too bad. I didnt hit the elite dwarf areas hard, noting prospector healing mobs. Gnashers end up with a geomancer deep, and at one entrance I got a little too much, so I made sure I took the caster and a couple of his friends before I ran the ghostwalk return.
Taking all the hits and my 3-4 times hitting the dirt took it's toll as my weapon went yellow. I probably will start a new Blog entry shortly... I plan to tweak my spec a little bit. For starters I think I'm going Dodge over Toughness. It's still a funny balance, but if I'm going to occasionally try my hand in solo instances [particularly until I reach the reflective block damage talent] I think I need to up my avoidance a bit more.Posted 11-07-2008 at 08:30 AM by CKaz - No unfortunately the macro:
/castsequence revenge, heroic strike
only works if you hit it repeatedly otherwise it will only give you revenge and not HS until you hit it again and wont revenge again until it resets or you hit the heroic strike sequence. I was wanting 1 button that does both in order or not at all. But I guess that kind of functionality doesn't exist lol i'll just keep my macro and not hit it when revenge isn't up.Posted 11-07-2008 at 10:40 AM by LxDraco - try wafflehouse's above?
/castsequence reset=2 Revenge, Heroic StrikePosted 11-07-2008 at 12:41 PM by CKaz
