[Ciderhelm]

Not only am I stealing this idea from TenTonHammer, I'm even going to quote Xerin to avoid having to write my own intro!

This thread is for ANY question that you feel doesn't deserve its own thread. Questions about quests should include quest names, questions about gear should include specs/builds/what you can obtain/levels. You should include your level most of the time, unless its something that can be easily assumed. You can also search the forums and the main site and get answers quicker if its something already answered. DON'T BE AFRAID to post a question that could already be answered. Someone will probably answer it again for you. No need in making you read the thousands of replies these threads get for something that can be answered quickly anyway

[Alegnaa]

Here's one for you -- I've read lately that you can not spec Prot and still tank just fine if you have the right gear. Is that true?

[Finelle]

Personally, I don't like to tank if I'm not Prot. A few things I miss way too much.

1. Shield Slam. Nothing beats a satisfying "clunk" in the headphones after landing a solid shield-to-face. No, actually, it's the threat. Losing aggro to every DPS in a PuG that deserves to be called DPS is quite frankly annoying. Which brings me to the second thing I hate about tanking in non-Prot. Watching that mage burst 900 TPS while you're praying that this Revenge doesn't get avoided...ewww.

2. Sunder Armor taking 9 rage. If it wasn't for the fact that I keep seeing my burst threat (Insta threat move+heroic) drain my rage from a respectable 30 to almost nothing, I might do a lil more tanking while I'm not-Prot from farming.

With that said, I know non-Prot warriors that have tanked heroics fine. While their TPS was <400 and DPS had to watch it, we finished the heroic with only a wipe or two.

If you're main tanking anything that can crush (raid bosses), Imp Shield Block is nothing less than a must.

Prot threat scaling scales with Shield Block Value, and does so very well indeed. Shield Mastery's synergy with Imp Shield Block and Shield Slam only add to the desirability of this stat. Especially with things that hit for <2k, SBV is a huge part of Prot mitigation.

Enter Arms or Fury tanking. Shield Block Value is now sub-par in desirability. Need mitigation? Armor/hp/avoidance. Need rage? Agility/crit (since crits double the fixed part of the rage equation). Need reliable steady threat? Strength scales your TPS and has a smaller effect on rage than crit.

With regards to your question:

I've read lately that you can not spec Prot and still tank just fine if you have the right gear. Is that true?

To a decent extent in 5 mans up to heroics, yes. In Kara, it starts to get bad from the TPS nonscaling and the crushing blows. I have just started in 25mans, so I'll just say that from everything I've read, Prot tanking is a must in 25mans. Asking a healer team to heal you through bosses landing crushes... owwww...

If you want to remain non Prot and tank, you'll want to prioritize differently with regards to tanking gear, and recognize that if you ever make the switch to a Protection spec, you're going to need half a new shopping list.

Hope this helped

[Lavache]

how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

[Odess]

Source: Ciderhelm Not only am I stealing this idea from TenTonHammer, I'm even going to quote Xerin to avoid having to write my own intro!

I'm telling Xerin

Hey everyone, I followed a few of Cider's posts from TenTonHammer's website back here, been lurking for a few weeks and decided to try my hand at tanking after reading everything I could on here, and being experienced with healing and DPS (priest and hunter at 70) I wanted to see another side. I just tanked my first instance last night (SM armory at level 32) and had a blast. My question is:

What kind of weapon is best for bashing the idea through a mage's thick skull that pulling a group of mobs by sheeping one of them is a bad idea?

[Ciderhelm]

Source: Odess What kind of weapon is best for bashing the idea through a mage's thick skull that pulling a group of mobs by sheeping one of them is a bad idea?

An axe, because if you can't attack the Mage directly, you'll get a higher chance to crit with talents and thus a higher chance to proc Deep Wounds on their sheep, making the target unsheepable. Enough Deep Wounds and Rends and the Mage will learn.

If you can, it also helps to charge the sheep at the beginning of the pull and break it.

[Squeegiemama]

Do you need a flying mount to do the questline to obtain [Grom'tor's Charge]?

[Clifford]

Source: Squeegiemam Do you need a flying mount to do the questline to obtain [Grom'tor's Charge]?

Don't think so, as I recall all the sons and quests are reachable on a normal mount.

[GodSavetheTank]

Just to clear something up: I have a friend who was a prot warr before TBC, I will affectionately refer to him as 'the oldie.' I am the 'new guy'-my tanking experience has mainly been TBC instances (I was 50 when the expansion came out and 'missed the best raids.') We've been going back and forth over the usefulness of Heroic Strike.

I was reaching upwards of 700tps with the rotation of sunder armor x5, then altering between revenge (when it was up). My main threat producing movements were shield slam and heroic strike. Grant it, I always had way to much rage when I did that, but I did keep the aggro and had high, sustained TPS.

But he on the other hand tells me to scrap Heroic Strike and go with a rotation of: sunder armor x5, and the constant spamming of shield block and revenge, and devastate. I tried that but I just felt like I wasn't keeping a steady stream of threat. His reasoning for not using Heroic Strike was "it takes too much rage." But, not only does it give you more DPS, but it gives you an increase threat!

What are all of your theories on this? I, personally, have adopted shield block/shield bash into my rotation, but I mainly use the heroic strike/shield slam rotation now.

Is there err in my way?

[Kazeyonoma]

your rotation should look something like this:

Shield Slam
Shield Block
Revenge
Sunderx2
Shield Slam
Shield Block
revenge
Sunderx2 (queue up Heroic strike if in excess of 50 rage)
Shield Slam
Shield Block
Revenge
Sunder
Devastate (queue up Heroic Strike if in excess)
repeat from Shield Slam right above, doing SS, SB, R, D, D, with Heroic Strike Queues