Making this quick and dirty, for Protection Warriors. Parts of this are updated from the older 3.0 Overview. Lore has added Paladin information in
this post.
P.S. I moved the
More Dual Spec Details and
Post-Blizzcon Updates from Ghostcrawler news to
General Discussion for the duration of patch day.
P.P.S. If you haven't logged in over the weekend you have a metric ton of news and discussion to read over thanks to Blizzcon.
Rotation
The standard "2344" is no longer useful in describing Warrior Threat. Because of Sword & Board procs, you'll need to be aware of the priority and make sure you're using the best attack available:
1. S&B Shield Slam
2. Revenge
3. Shield Slam
4. Devastate / Whatever
There's a few different ways to look at our priority system as it relates to Shield Slam and Revenge, rage, crit, glyphs, and damage, so stay tuned if that changes. Also, I can't pretend the above is scientifically tested on my end, so if you'd like to challenge that priority, please feel free to do so.
Warrior Tanking Specs
Let me preface this by saying the builds I'm going to recommend aren't necessarily the best build for you. As before, Protection lends itself to builds that are unique to your situation, which is what sets it apart from many other builds in WoW. However, it's also fair to say that Protection is designed around level 80 players, and it's virtually impossible to get a streamlined 70 raiding build without big sacrifices. Bear with me, as these builds can be changed a
lot depending on your situation. Feel free to ask talent-specific questions in this thread.
Raid Main Tanking
Three points in Improved Shield Specialization may be important to you depending on your gear level and the content you're taking. If this is the case, there's a whole lot of options for the cutting block: Shockwave, Vigilance, Concussion Blow, Gag Order, Puncture, and potentially even Improved Thunder Clap. These decisions will have to be made based on your own circumstances (i.e. don't drop Thunder Clap if you're applying the 20% slowing debuff for yourself; don't drop Vigilance, Thunder Clap, or Shockwave if you're AOE tanking Hyjal, etc).
5-Man/Heroic/Karazhan Tanking
Drop some Avoidance immediately! It's borderline sinful to say such a thing, but it's just not necessary at this point in the game unless you're brand new to 70. For this build, I also dropped Puncture, since the side effect of being able to pull more mobs at a time is having more damage to work with -- I've moved these points over to Cruelty. You can move those two points out of Deflection to wherever you'd like if you're willing to take a bit more damage.
A Note on Cruelty vs. Impale/Deep Wounds
Impale, with or without Deep Wounds, is going to be stronger as you get to 80, but it's just about impossible to get in a
good 70 or 70-to-80 leveling build. Beware of this for the future, though.
A Note on Improved Revenge
Improved Revenge is included in my builds for the damage bonus (which is significantly more valuable since the recent Revenge buff), but it bears repeating that the stun
is very good on this ability for solo grinding and leveling. Yes, you do lose a bit of rage, but your whole rotation is much cheaper and more sustainable than it has been in the past thanks to S&B.
Regarding Damage Talents
Threat is not turning out to be a difficult task the way it was in The Burning Crusade. So long as this remains the case, you actually have a bit of flexibility in moving points to the utility talents
you want rather than sticking to a max-TPS cookie cutter. Bear in mind, though, that dealing maximum damage is now a serious contribution to your raid, and specing accordingly may be appropriate.
Glyphs
There's a good variety of glyphs to choose from for Warriors. Here's the full list (courtesy of Naka):
All Major Glyphs Glyph of Blocking
Glyph of Revenge
Glyph of Heroic Strike
Glyph of Last Stand
Glyph of Devastate
Glyph of Rapid Charge
Glyph of Sunder Armor
Glyph of Cleaving
Glyph of Resonating Power All Minor Glyphs Glyph of Bloodrage
Glyph of Thunder Clap
Glyph of Charge
Glyph of Battle
For level 70, you'll only have access to 2 major glyphs and 3 minor glyphs. At 80 you'll get the third major glyph. There are quite a few good options here, but I'm going to recommend what I believe will bring the most utility for leveling and pre-Wrath grinding:
Major Glyph of Revenge Glyph of Rapid Charge Minor Glyph of Battle
Glyph of Charge
Glyph of Bloodrage
If you're strictly focused on tanking then Heroic Strike, and Last Stand are both very attractive. Blocking isn't available until Wrath of the Lich King or I'd have it. Finally, the reason I chose Charge is because -- yes -- I'm waiting on the Charge cooldown to refresh when grinding equal-level mobs now, and that is an awesome feeling.
Itemization
Your Defense is getting hit, and it's potentially getting hit
hard. If you're still raiding but you're not at late T5 gear level, resocket to +Defense gems to reach 490.
What I want to use this section for, though, is letting you in on some tips for grinding (and leveling). Here's what you need if you don't already have it:
Felsteel Shield Spike Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 Figurine of the Colossus Petrified Lichen Guard
I've been preaching the first three for fun Warrior tricks for over a year now, but the fourth is new to my "must have" list. Sporeggar shield is absolutely awesome for AOE grinding.
Hopefully you grabbed
Coren's Lucky Coin during Brewfest. This is not, however, an excuse not to pick up the Auto-Blocker -- they do stack. The first macro in the next section makes use of both trinkets.
Finally, while leveling, I have made use of health recovery trinkets. Don't do this unless you're already familiar with quickly swapping trinkets. The best is
Spyglass of the Hidden Fleet, but before Enraged Regeneration, I made some use of
Ashtongue Talisman of Valor. Yes, it is actually useful in a small pocket of the game.
AOE Grinding
Head to Black Temple and see if you can find a time slot between yourself, the other Warriors, and the Paladins who will be swarming the terrace...
Per an earlier post: Do not underestimate the value of a scaling damage reduction from gear (Armor and Block), scaling multi-target damage (Shockwave, Damage Shield, Thunder Clap), and scaling healing (Enraged Regeneration). Each of these may seem small, but what you'll be able to pull off will be nothing short of spectacular. You've got a lot to look forward to at 80 and you can get started on it now.
Grinding -- Shield Block Bonuses, Shockwave
Shockwave should never be used while Shield Block is active. This is because the value of the Shield Block buff is seriously diminished while mobs are stunned -- Damage Shield, which has it's damage increased due to the 100% Block Value buff, will not proc, and the stun occurring during a period where you have 100% Block Chance is less effective than when your combat table is not covered.
The solution is to stagger the two. Use Shield Block, which should be on a 40 second cooldown thanks to talents, then use Shockwave immediately after the buff has worn off. Since Shockwave is on a 20 second cooldown, it will stay staggered appropriately.
Block Value trinkets are valuable for leveling. If you don't have both Coren's Lucky Coin and Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker, get a health regeneration or DPS usable trinket in the mix.
You'll want to get a macro running which will allow the use of these two trinkets when Shield Block goes up. You'll also want to tie Shield Slam into this and make sure it goes off near instantly once the Shield Block and trinket bonuses are up. Here's the macro:
Code:
#showtooltip Shield Slam
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast Shield Block
/use 13
/use 14
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shield Slam
/startattack
While Shield Block is active, do
not use abilities that don't proc Shield Slam via Sword and Board. This means Shield Slam, then Revenge/Devastate until Shield Slam is back up again.
Instance Run Example (Courtesy Xav)
I'm stretching it a bit by including a Wrath-specific instance movie in here, but this is a level 70 instance and it will give you an example of how sweeping these changes are:
Of note in this video is a response from Xav that can be found
here recommending this macro:
Code:
/cast Charge
/cast Taunt
Ability Changes
This is near the bottom of the list because I expect most of you have already been following the site. However, it's good to see this brought up in a single list again:
- Berserker Rage in all stances -- use it while grinding -- don't forget you get extra rage from damage.
- Shield Bash is off the global cooldown and does not deal damage.
- Shield Block is on a 40 second cooldown with talents, lasts 10 full seconds with no charges, and increases Shield Block Value by 100%.
- Intervene has a 10% targeted Threat Reduction included (i.e. a bit of raid utility and a bit of help in 5-mans).
- Imp Revenge deals a ton of damage.
- Thunder Clap hits an unlimited number of targets.
- Recklessness, Retaliation, and Shield Wall are all now 5 minute unlinked cooldowns.
Encounter Mechanics Changes
Another quick list:
- Crushing Blows are gone from raid bosses.
- Illidan's Shear is gone.
- Sunwell Radiance has been removed.
User Interface & Mods Questions
Make use of our
User Interface, Addons, and Macros section for any questions you have going into 3.0. It will save you a lot of hassle and you might find something unexpected and good.
Must-Read Discussions
From Patch to Wrath -- 3.0 Warriors & Paladins
Warrior Tank socketing in 3.0/Wrath - thoughts?
What's your tanking glyphs this coming tuesday?
Protection Warrior 3.0 Overview
WoW 3.0 Threat Values
http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/...gear-list.html 
3.0 Preparedness -- Your Tuesday Guide
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