We Asked, They Delivered

**Ciderhelm** · #1 09-03-2008, 03:47 AM

Needless to say, I'm ecstatic about the changes Protection is seeing. There are still issues, so keep raising awareness of them, but let's not forget the amazing things we're seeing. Here's the latest:

Source: Gamnin, WotLK Beta
Enraged Assault redesigned, now Enraged Regeneration: You regenerate 30% of your total health over 10 sec. This ability consumes all Enrage effects and prevents any from affecting you for the full duration. Must be enraged to use. Cost 15 rage, 3 min cooldown.

This is absolutely awesome. This fits perfectly with Improved Defensive Stance, which will keep an Enrage effect active through almost everything we do. This will be great for virtually everything we do, from grinding to tanking to PVP, and could be the ability that finally makes grinding casters and elementals bearable.

Now couple this with the extraordinarily high Shield Slams we're seeing, the addition of Weapon Throw, and several other buffs, and what does this remind you of? Maybe they're watching!

Source: Gamnin, WotLK Beta
Vigilance will soon transfer the 10% threat lost to the warrior. It will also have 3 charges to curb using it on targets that are being hit constantly. We’re still polishing this element to get it to feel right.

Vigilance has gone from bad to awesome. Coincidentally, I just read a post from Nephele on the WoW-US forums yesterday and thought, "that would be pretty cool." Quite happy to see this change!

You can find the rest of Gamnin's post here.

Protection PVP
I know many people in the community aren't looking to PVP as Protection. This is fine. However, I'm not part of this group, and I have to say I'm genuinely excited about the changes to class design to allow effective group PVP in as many specs as possible.

As it stands, Protection will bring the following: Shield Slam burst damage (and crits!), Dispels, single target and conal AOE stuns, and, thanks to Safeguard/Warbringer, very high mobility.

It needs to be emphasized that this is a direction they are taking classes across the game -- it isn't unique to tanks. PVP buffs aren't coming in at the expense of PVE performance.

With that said, I can effectively close the chapter on what I once felt was a futile effort.

Arudar · #2 09-03-2008, 04:10 AM

Very nice changes overall. The 10% threat change to vigilance is awesome, but I am a little concerned about the "3 charges" aspect. Think of the amount of raid damage that goes around in boss fights - if every little bit of damage counts as a charge, it's going to last no time at all, and it'll be a pain to keep reapplying. It's certainly going in the right direction, but needs more tweaking yet (to be fair, which blizzard have admitted).

I am in love with the Enraged Generation change. There's the survivability talent we've been yammering for.

Still a bit baffled by the nerf to sword and board - a talent that was already underpowered. Hopefully this just means a big boost to the numbers is coming soon. Equally baffled by the charge talent - if it was in defensive stance I might be enticed, but battle stance? I can't see any great reason to take this right now.

**Ciderhelm** · #3 09-03-2008, 04:14 AM

Source: Arudar
Equally baffled by the charge talent - if it was in defensive stance I might be enticed, but battle stance? I can't see any great reason to take this right now.

As someone who is in love with Improved Intercept, all I can say is that this is good. It's designed for PVP and it's in a place where it's 100% optional (i.e. you'll never need to take it to get to a later tier).

Would it be better in Defensive Stance? Absolutely. But I'll find a point for it regardless, because mobility is a godsend. In PVP, it may as well be called "Improved Safeguard," since it's a third means of breaking movement impairing effects.

Dots · #4 09-03-2008, 04:16 AM

Pretty sure the Vigilance charges only get expended if the target is hit by melee to prevent it from chain resetting your Taunt cooldown if put on a mage who is AEing or something liek that.

**Lilie** · #5 09-03-2008, 04:29 AM

/ahhhhhhh

a self heal

that is fun

**Galushi** · #6 09-03-2008, 04:39 AM

Curious to see if the self heal will also give us some threat =)

**Aughban** · #7 09-03-2008, 05:07 AM

Source: Galushi
Curious to see if the self heal will also give us some threat =)

It will definatly generate threat, i just wonder how much threat.

**Galushi** · #8 09-03-2008, 05:12 AM

Well this is just a guess, but if its a 30% hp heal and if a tank has around 20k hp, gets full use of the heal (isnt topped off so none is overheal), gets 1 threat per 2 healing, and is in defensive stance...

(.30)*(20,000)*(.5)*(1.45) = 4350 Threat. Um...Not bad at all.

**Galushi** · #9 09-03-2008, 05:15 AM

Oh since i dont think i can edit my previous message...

I'd probably pop this as soon as the first enrage buff procced after engaging the boss, the initial heal threat to establish agro and health gain itself would ease a pull by making your health spike less and reducing the chance for your healers to pull agro.

**Rak** · #10 09-03-2008, 05:16 AM

It would have to depend on the boss fight. On many fights I imagine keeping the enrage buff for 10% more damage would be more threat than the HoT (which would be overheal on many fight openers).

**Jasra** · #11 09-03-2008, 05:17 AM

It's interesting, but doesn't it seem odd that a baseline ability (Enraged Regeneration) would be 100% useless for a protection warrior who didn't spend points in improved defensive stance?

**Galushi** · #12 09-03-2008, 05:17 AM

Oh i guess that's true since the HoT buff prevents you from gaining the Enrage buff right away. That is a tough call.

**Rak** · #13 09-03-2008, 05:18 AM

Not really because it seems like it's aimed more at DPS warriors than tanks. It strikes me as being more of a pvp/grinding ability, with prot uses being a bonus.

**Aughban** · #14 09-03-2008, 05:18 AM

Source: Rak
It would have to depend on the boss fight. On many fights I imagine keeping the enrage buff for 10% more damage would be more threat than the HoT (which would be overheal on many fight openers).

yes but you enrage every time you block, dodge and parry (if you have 2 points in imp defencive stance), so it won't be long untill you enrage agian after using the 3 min CD.

**Rak** · #15 09-03-2008, 05:19 AM

It will be at least 10 seconds before you enrage again, actually. Go read the post.

**Aughban** · #16 09-03-2008, 05:23 AM

im sorry, 10 seconds is a long time now is it?

**Galushi** · #17 09-03-2008, 05:23 AM

Source: Jasra
It's interesting, but doesn't it seem odd that a baseline ability (Enraged Regeneration) would be 100% useless for a protection warrior who didn't spend points in improved defensive stance?

Imp Def Stance isnt the only way to get "enraged" to be able to use Enraged Regeneration. I believe bloodrage and berserker rage can be consumed as enrage effects.

**Ciderhelm** · #18 09-03-2008, 05:23 AM

Source: Rak
Not really because it seems like it's aimed more at DPS warriors than tanks. It strikes me as being more of a pvp/grinding ability, with prot uses being a bonus.

I'm fairly certain it's aimed at all Warriors, not any specific subset. But then, I also don't think it's safe to be saying classifying tanks as separate from DPS warriors these days, in terms of the goal that they to be effective at grinding, etc.

**Jasra** · #19 09-03-2008, 05:23 AM

Source: Rak
Not really because it seems like it's aimed more at DPS warriors than tanks. It strikes me as being more of a pvp/grinding ability, with prot uses being a bonus.

But that's the whole point - I don't think there's anything in our baseline that does absolutely nothing unless you spend talent points to unlock it, regardless of who is "supposed" to use it.

**Jasra** · #20 09-03-2008, 05:26 AM

Source: Galushi
Imp Def Stance isnt the only way to get "enraged" to be able to use Enraged Regeneration. I believe bloodrage and berserker rage can be consumed as enrage effects.

Oh, that would make sense if it's true. I never thought of those as "enraged", just as buffs. Hopefully we'll see this in beta soon to make sure.