"Rotation"

I haven't tanked much since the patch. I'm just getting that out there. About the only thing I've tanked is the Headless Horseman, which, as we all know, is a cinch. But it still gives some insight on tanking rotation. I'm going to assume you have Sword and Board. It's a no-brainer, and if you don't have it, you should get it. Honestly, not much has changed, and a lot of people will find this to be a pretty useless post, but without further ado, here's the GCD rotation.

1. If Shield Slam is available, then Shield Slam.
2. If Revenge is available, then Revenge
3. Devastate otherwise.

I think, however, that it is better represented by the following flowchart:

So, your tanking rotation is not a rotation in terms of SS-Rev-Dev-Dev. It's more based on reacting to procs, and watching cooldowns. If Sword and Board procs, then the "rotation" starts over at Shield Slam, but if Revenge is on cooldown, you go right to Devastate. You might get a Sword and Board proc off of Devastate, in which case you should Shield Slam again, etc. Every GCD, you have to go through the above chart, for maximum efficiency.

The best way to do this is to watch your scrolling combat text. If you set it up right, it will show you reactive abilities, auras, and more as they are applied and fade. So, when Sword and Board procs, it will be shown in green above your head, and you can Shield Slam on the next GCD.

In terms of non-GCD abilities, the rules that applied to Heroic Strike previously are still valid. Use it as a rage dump. Now, these days I seem to have more rage than I did pre-patch, so this means I find myself hitting Heroic Strike a lot more. One huge exception exists: Glyph of Revenge. I picked this one up for free due to a bunch of guildies leveling inscription, and it has been pretty awesome. After you use Revenge, you hit Heroic Strike for free. This increases threat in low-rage situations quite a bit.

As for the other non-GCD ability that is in general use, I'd say pop Shield Block whenever it's up. It'll increase threat while giving a little boost to survivability, and there's really no reason not to pop it when it comes up. "But Thireas, how is that different from pre-patch?" I hear you asking. The difference is that popping Shield Block is no longer necessary to your survival in boss fights. No longer will you get crushed if you miss a cooldown. So, it goes from an absolutely-must-have-omg-you-nub-why-didn't-you-have-SB-up ability to a sweet-I-have-more-threat ability. Lastly, it lights up Revenge, which procs Glyph of Revenge, which (again) allows a free Heroic Strike, increasing threat even more.

So, those are my thoughts on tanking "rotation". What do you think?

EDIT: Realized that Glyph of Revenge just works when you use Revenge... it's not a proc (according to WoWHead, anyway).