Vene's Quick and Dirty Pre-Naxx Prot DPS Guide

[veneretio]

This guide is focused specifically on dpsing when not tanking in a raid setting as a Protection speced Warrior.

I. Gear to reach Caps

Goals:
262 hit (8%)
164 expertise (5% + 1.5% from 3/3 Vitality)

66 hit: Boots of the Neverending Path - Item - World of Warcraft (boots) - Exalted Argent Crusade
60 hit: Spiked Titansteel Helm - Item - World of Warcraft (helm) - Blacksmithing
55 hit: Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood - Item - World of Warcraft (trinket) - Last Boss, Heroic Nexus
61 +16 hit: Engraved Chestplate of Eck - Item - World of Warcraft (chest) - Optional Boss, Eck from Heroic Gundrak
= 258 Hit Rating

31 exp: Shroud of Reverberation - Item - World of Warcraft (cloak) - 2nd Boss, Heroic Halls of Lightning
29 exp: Titansteel Bonecrusher - Item - World of Warcraft (weapon) - Blacksmithing
33 exp: Hemorrhaging Circle - Item - World of Warcraft (ring) - Last Boss, Heroic Gundrak
43 +4 exp: Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt - Item - World of Warcraft (belt) - Last Boss, Heroic Utgarde Keep
= 140 Expertise Rating

Which leaves 4 Hit Rating and 24 Expertise to acquire from any other gem slots. (or enchants if you must) Once you've reached the caps, you'll want to go all out on Strength. As your gear progresses, you'll want to make sure to maintain these caps and when you replace your weapon be sure to choose a slow weapon as it'll improve your Devastate damage.

II. Rotation

Low Latency: Shield Slam > Devastate > Devastate > X
High Latency: Shield Slam > Devastate > X
X = Buffs > Concussion Blow > Shockwave > Rend* > Devastate

Heroic Strike should be used if you get too much rage, but since you're only using a 1 hander to generate auto-attack rage... this isn't going to happen too often. I don't include Whirlwind in the rotation as the nearly double rage cost (22 vs 12) makes it more valuable to Devastate instead given that we'll be dealing with limited rage and Devastate can proc a free Shield Slam. Furthermore, since Rend is superior and not usable in Berserker Stance we'll be opting to DPS in Battle Stance.

You can expect to have to keep up one or all of Battle/Commanding Shout, Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout. (Labeled "Buffs" in the X part of the rotation) The beauty of the rotation listed is that you'll already be in Battle Stance to apply Rend so if you do have to keep up Thunder Clap, you won't have to worry about stance dancing back and forth to Berserker Stance. Any of these buffs should be at the top of your X priority chain in your rotation when they need to be applied/renewed.

* You can easily move 2 points from Improve Charge to Improved Rend in the Impale spec in order to cater to this and not hamper your tanking at all as Charge's rage gain basically never plays a factor in raid MTing. Even if you don't spec into Improve Rend, it's still worth applying Rend.

III. Gems

Yellow

• Accurate Monarch Topaz - Item - World of Warcraft (8 hit/8 exp) - for finishing off Hit Rating cap
• Inscribed Monarch Topaz - Item - World of Warcraft (8 str/8 crit) - Once caps are reached if you're Impale spec
• Fierce Monarch Topaz - Item - World of Warcraft (8 str/8 haste) - Once caps are reached for non-Impale spec

Red

• Precise Scarlet Ruby - Item - World of Warcraft (16 exp) - for finishing off Expertise Rating cap
• Bold Scarlet Ruby - Item - World of Warcraft (16 str) - Your bread and butter once you've reached both caps

Blue

• Sovereign Twilight Opal - Item - World of Warcraft (8 str/12 stam) - For going for socket bonuses and activating meta

Meta

• Chaotic Skyflare Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft (21 crit/3% crit damage) for Impale spec
• Thundering Skyflare Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft (proc of 480 haste for 6 sec) will help with rage generation for non-Impale spec

IV. Enchants

Helm: Arcanum of Torment - Item - World of Warcraft
Bracers: Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault - Spell - World of Warcraft
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Crusher - Spell - World of Warcraft
Boots: Enchant Boots - Greater Assault - Spell - World of Warcraft
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Major Agility - Spell - World of Warcraft
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats - Spell - World of Warcraft
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor - Item - World of Warcraft
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe - Item - World of Warcraft
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Superior Potency - Spell - World of Warcraft

V. Spec

15/5/51 - Impale
15/5/51 - Impale with Imp Rend

Those are the Impale specs that I mention throughout the guide. If you aren't planning on using one then just gem for haste instead of crit since you'll gain no benefit from critting really at all and haste will improve your rage generation making for a smoother rotation.

VI. Additional Notes and Credit

This is not a guide for Fury/Arms DPS in any way. It's not about getting the best Prot-style dps spec either. It's about maximizing your DPS when not tanking utilizing your standard tank spec. You aren't going to beat good Fury/Arms Warriors, but by doing this you should be able to contribute some decent dps when not tanking and maybe even keep up with (or surpass) the lazier/undergeared dpsers in your guild. (on melee friendly fights, you can probably beat some ranged dps too)

Huge credit goes to Corbusier for his Fury Guide as it obviously did a lot of the leg work/number crunching for this guide. Thanks to Kavtor for helping to refine the Rotations portion of the Guide as well.

[loquatious]

Do you think this approach will beat DW Devastate/WW/Heroic strike spam?

I haven't had much of a chance to DPS but if i could get to 1600 dps without rage from incoming damage I'd be happy

[Darksend]

i was under the impression that DW devistate was killed when blizzard reduced devistate from 80 to 50

[veneretio]

I haven't had much of a chance to DPS but if i could get to 1600 dps without rage from incoming damage I'd be happy

Well, I can tell you that on Patchwork10 without being capped in either hit or expertise, I did 1400 dps while helping out with crap like demo and thunderclap, so 1600 really shouldn't be hard at all. That being said... my goal is 2000 dps. I want to actually give dpsers a run for their money and with the gear listed + solid gear in all other slots... I've got high hopes to pull that off.

...and yes, sword and board should trump DWing.

[Kavtor]

II. Rotation

Shield Slam > Concussion Blow > Shockwave > Devastate

Really, what you want to do is SS / Dev / Dev / x

Where x is Concussion Blow, Shockwave, or Rend. This should keep the three abilities on CD, with out loosing the opportunity for a S&B proc. S&B procs on the last GCD before SS comes back up are only a bonus in rage, whereas, if you use a conc blow right after your SS, you've cost yourself a potential proc. If you're getting a fair amount of S&B procs in your rotation, then you start throwing in the extra abilities a little early, just to keep using them.

The goal is to never use devastate on the GCD before your shield slam refreshes, and always use one of your higher damaging abilities.

Improved Rend will put up a fair amount of damage on it's own. Add in a bleed debuff, and it starts to get really worthwhile. I'm averaging between 500-700 ticks while DPSing. 2500-3500 damage per application. I'm sure with actual L80 DPS gear it could interesting.

[veneretio]

Makes sense. 2 points from Imp Charge could easily be shifted to Imp Rend as you'll get minimal gain from it regardless if you're tanking or dpsing. I've updated the guide to reflect this superior rotation.

[TomHuxley]

I've been thinking very hard about a respec to the 15/5/51 impale spec, what are the pros and cons for quests, farming, heroics, etc? My largest concern is rage generation against non-raid bosses without having to undress too much every time I head to Scholozar Basin.

Thanks!

[Kavtor]

My only question would be, is it worth Rend's extra damage to have to DPS in Battle Stance? 3% crit vs Rend.

I won't pretend these parses are in any way an example of what prot DPS can do. I'm running largely T6 DPS gear still, and I'm sure I could play much better. And numbers could certainly be actually crunched to show that I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I think they support that rend can be a non-trivial DPS contribution.

But

Wow Web Stats
DPSing Heigan in DPS gear (dance, so overall DPS isn't applicable, but relative DPS contributions should be applicable) Rend makes up 6% of my damage, and I'm certainly not being overzealous about keeping it up.

Wow Web Stats
I'm tanking adds on Kel'Thuzad, so I spend a lot of time DPSing Kel in tank gear. 4% contribution for rend. And I didn't use it much.

I think if you were good, you could get a lot of milage out of rend. My halfhearted use is still seeing better numbers than just staying in zerk stance. Whether it's worth stance dancing to keep it up and stay in zerk a lot would probably take enough actual math to be not worth the 50g respec to fury.

[veneretio]

I've been thinking very hard about a respec to the 15/5/51 impale spec, what are the pros and cons for quests, farming, heroics, etc? My largest concern is rage generation against non-raid bosses without having to undress too much every time I head to Scholozar Basin.

Thanks!

Currently, 15/5/51 seems to be among the highest dps Prot tanking spec there is, so I'd expect it to be excellent for questing, farming and heroics.

[veneretio]

I won't pretend these parses are in any way an example of what prot DPS can do. I'm running largely T6 DPS gear still, and I'm sure I could play much better. And numbers could certainly be actually crunched to show that I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I think they support that rend can be a non-trivial DPS contribution.

But

Wow Web Stats
DPSing Heigan in DPS gear (dance, so overall DPS isn't applicable, but relative DPS contributions should be applicable) Rend makes up 6% of my damage, and I'm certainly not being overzealous about keeping it up.

Wow Web Stats
I'm tanking adds on Kel'Thuzad, so I spend a lot of time DPSing Kel in tank gear. 4% contribution for rend. And I didn't use it much.

I think if you were good, you could get a lot of milage out of rend. My halfhearted use is still seeing better numbers than just staying in zerk stance. Whether it's worth stance dancing to keep it up and stay in zerk a lot would probably take enough actual math to be not worth the 50g respec to fury.

Looks solid to me, DPSing in Battle Stance it is. I'll probably cop out on Patchwork10 tanking so that I can test this stuff out.

[TomHuxley]

Currently, 15/5/51 seems to be among the highest dps Prot tanking spec there is, so I'd expect it to be excellent for questing, farming and heroics.

I wasn't questioning the DPS aspect, just rage generation. Of course Imp Charge helps quite a bit when questing ("gold farming") or farming, but you sacrifice your cheap Devestate and don't have Imp Bloodrage to help out in a crunch.

I guess I'm asking whether in peoples experience the white damage rage generation outweighs the add expense of devestate when they outgear content.

[veneretio]

I guess I'm asking whether in peoples experience the white damage rage generation outweighs the add expense of devestate when they outgear content.

I haven't used Puncture since 3.0 and have never had rage issues. When you consider that Devastate is a very small part of our rotation now, it's really kind of a lackluster talent now.

[Halgreg]

I've been researching this a lot lately because this is an area that isn't as fleshed out in warrior guides as it should. From personal experience, my dps set consists of mostly fury warrior gear, and I'm in the camp of dual wielding simply because it allows for more rage generation. I am open to new approaches though, so I'll try out the fundamentals outlined in your guide to compare results.

My current approach is this: Assuming 5/15/51 spec, Dual Wield, Max hit cap, Crit % to ~33 (with Sword and Board and Cruelty should make Devastate 50% Crit total), AP after that. Roll Deep Wounds with every other Devastate. Big hits can come from (in this order) Concussion blow, Shockwave, Whirlwind.

One thing that I like is that you make an interesting case for rend + battle stance, so I actually wouldn't mind checking that out since my approach is very bleed friendly. Also, assuming I have enough rage, I could combine both approaches by putting on a shield for sword and board procs. I'll put together a set soon and see how it goes.

[Shortypop]

I'm currently investigating using a dw devastate spec, mainly because I find it almost impossible to keep up a devastate&shield slam rotation when receiving no incoming damage at all. Unfortunately I can't really contribute much numbers as I'm usually OT'ing adds in tank gear, I did manage 2.2k on Loatheb (with commanding and demo up) but that's not really a fair reflection on my damage; but counteracting that is that my dps gear is shocking

[Prunetracy]

I managed 2.2k DPS on Maexxna 25 tonight, I was really happy with that. Hell, I even beat some DPS specs and came in at 7th.

I did that in Berserker, but I'm intrigued with the Battle Stance option, since that would allow me to keep TClap up for the MT as well. I'll try a battle/rend technique next time I'm in that role.

[Darksend]

I've been thinking very hard about a respec to the 15/5/51 impale spec, what are the pros and cons for quests, farming, heroics, etc? My largest concern is rage generation against non-raid bosses without having to undress too much every time I head to Scholozar Basin.

Thanks!

one thing i like about a non impale spec at least for heroics is piercing howl, almost everything in the game accept raid bosses is affected by it (even things like whelps from tenebron on sartharion noth's skellies and gluths zombies) and greatly reducing your incoming damage or give your healer that extra .3 seconds to get a heal off in a heroic.

[veneretio]

One thing that probably should be added to the guide somewhere is the concept of dual weilding at 20% for Execute spam. 2 fast 1 handers that you can just spam execute with non-stop should trump Sword and Board easily.

[loquatious]

Shield slam does more damage than an execute for me.

[Belak]

Execute doesn't have a 6 second cooldown though.

Another high +hit item you didn't mention as a possible alternative is the Staggering Legplates - Item - World of Warcraft with 80 Hit Rating and 2 sockets, also from Heroic Utgarde Keep.

[veneretio]

Shield slam does more damage than an execute for me.

In proper DPS Prot gear it may not and there's also the cost difference of 12 vs 17 rage too which is why if you're going to execute, you'll want to just start dual wielding and spamming it every cooldown.