L20 protection warrior - what abilities to use without devastate and shield slam?
I've rolled a protection warrior and want to level in that spec to get a feel for defensive stance abilities even if fury or arms are faster. Already at Level 20, I feel I have more abilities than my level 80 paladin tank, but I am at a loss about which ones to use. I've read about the protection warrior "rotation" but it seems that, at least for single target fights, low levels miss the key abilities of devastate and shield slam. What should I use in their place? I am interested in all PVE encounters - soloing; AOE tanking and boss tanking. Although from what I have read, I seem to be ok for AOE - with demoralising shout, thunderclap, cleave and revenge.
Specifically, should I use disarm and rend much? Or could they replace shield slam and devastate as single target moves while I wait for revenge to proc? Or would the rage be better spent on heroic strikes, from a damage/rage point of view? Disarm sounds attractive, at least on bosses that are vulnerable but I don't know if rend is competitive in terms of damage.
And should I limit sunder armor to boss tanking for threat? Because although it appears like a forerunner to devastate, the lack of damage is profoundly unappealing for levelling.
L20 protection warrior - what abilities to use without devastate and shield slam?
At your level, it will depend on what you are doing. Solo, rend is better use of the rage, but heroic strike might be even better. While tanking, remember that dps is not your job...threat and survival are. That is why sunder and disarm are good and rend is not. The threat from rend is not as good as sunder.