3.2 and Beyond- Warrior tanking Weapons?? discuss

[Rathh]

This week I swapped out my 25-hard mode

Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers - Item - World of Warcraft

for my 10-hard mode

Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm - Item - World of Warcraft

and it is by far the superior Weapon for me at this point (based on gear sitting in my bags not what is available on live). With the change to devastate giving 100% weapon damage and the glyph of devastate adding more threat then I know what to do with, it seems once again regardless of the weapon speed, the HIGHEST DAMAGE RANGE 1-handers are going to be the best to use. (Also add in the fact that higher dmg weapons make our rend and bleeds do more dmg/threat.)

As of this week in 10 & 25 Colosium / Ulduar I was pushing about 900-1100 more dps then I have with my faster/lower dmg range weapon and was basically untouchable on threat where my mages push me hard from time to time.

I know a lot of talk has been about the Devastate changes, dmg its doing, increase threat from its glyph and such but no one has touched on the weapon choices now that those discussions are live and numbers are coming in. If everything I am experiencing and reading holds true then 1-hand High dps weapons will be open to tanks again.

Please discuss, add anything experience / log / numberwise and lets get this going.

[Sythas]

I've also been looking at this sword to replace my Titanguard. Personally I find the threat from heroic strike at 1.6 weapon speed better than the increased Rend and Devastate Damage from slower weapons.

With the new buff I'm not sure which is better. During a high damage boss fight my rage means I can have heroic strike up all the time, and it is 30% of total damage done to boss because of the speed I can hit with heroic strikes. Surely this 30% more damage is better than the damage bonus from a slow weapon ?

[Rathh]

I know its summer and a lot of people are missing from these wonderful forums but the Lack of response makes me a little sad so if anyone has time chime in.

My math skills are bad...but lets give this a whirl using Titanguard and Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm - Item - World of Warcraft since they are = iLvL

Titanguard has a dmg range of 200-372 at 1.6 speed
Heroic Strike would hit between 695-867
5 sundered Devastate would hit between 1210-1382

Serilas has a dmg range of 325-605 at 2.6 speed
Heroic Strike would hit between 820-1100
5 sundered Devastate would hit between 1335-1615

In a 1 min fight, assuming every global hit, max rage, no Crits and no lag:

Titanguard Hs would hit 37.5 times for a total between 26062.5 - 32512.5
Titanguard Dev would hit 60 times for a total between 72600 - 83160

Serilas Hs would hit 23 times for a total between 18923 - 25384.6
Serilas Dev would hit 60 times for a total between 80100 - 96900

Titanguard total dmg between 98662.5 - 115672.5
Serilas total dmg between 99006 - 122284.6

So using the situation where you Devastate every Global and Heroic Strike on weapon swing in a full minute without any crits you see combined totals of Serilas winning with 343.5 - 6612.1 more dmg.

At 5 min 1717.5 - 33060.5 up to 66120 with crits (more like 45000 with realistic ingame crit numbers i See)
At 10 min 3435 - 66121 up to 132245 with crits (again more like 90000)

If you take into consideration that fights last 5-20 minutes per a boss and that crits with devastate are near 50% with my character the Serilas dmg difference just gets multiplied by crit and the fight length.

Now as I do all this best case math I want to remind everyone that its not just slower weapons that i am saying are better again but the higher damage range weapons. If we are able to find a top end weapon that is fast and also has a very high dmg range it may balance out but seeing what is available I feel we are looking at going big DMG right now. Again, with the new Dev changes it is my main used ability with shield slams and S&B constant procs and the sheer amount of dmg/threat i am getting out of the Serilas with these are bigger tehn I had first expected.

[Porcell]

Now as I do all this best case math I want to remind everyone that its not just slower weapons that i am saying are better again but the higher damage range weapons. If we are able to find a top end weapon that is fast and also has a very high dmg range it may balance out

All you have to do is look at weapon speed (as long as they are comparable iLvl/DPS). There's no reason to stress out about the exact damage ranges of the weapons. If two weapons have the same speed, but one has a higher top end damage, that means it also has a lower bottom end damage and it will all average out to be the same. I suppose if you are looking at one iLvl 226 2.6 speed and comparing to a iLvL 232 2.5 speed, but then you just take DPS * Weapon Speed = Average Damage. Compare that number, don't just look at the top end damage.

Anyway, back to your "best case" math. One issue is that only 40-50% of your GCDs will be Devastate, not 100%. Also, you are just looking at damage; there is a pretty hefty Threat bonus to heroic strike that you are getting a LOT more often when using the fast weapon.

What it comes down to is your Heroic Strike uptime. If you have 70+% HS uptime with your fast weapon, it's probably doing to do more damage/threat than the extra damage from Devastate and Deep Wound with the slow weapon.

As with any other piece of gear, you need to select the right weapon for the job. I'd say there certainly is a place for a slow weapon in your arsenal.

[edit] I guess I should add that I picked up the Insanity's Grasp off 25-Mimiron and have been using it in my heroics. I still use Sorthalis for all of my raid boss tanking though.

[calizon]

What about Stonerender - Item - World of Warcraft I picked it up last night to avoid being sharded because it will activate my dwarf racial and put me over expertise soft cap. I dont really need the stam and havent picked up any 25m uld tanking weapons. I think the threat on it will be great and it will hit harder than Stoneguard - Item - World of Warcraft

[Brucimus]

I use Stonerender with my threat/blocking set...and it is an outstanding piece.

I have been playing with slow weapons recently...i still like my fast ones better

[gom]

Anyway, back to your "best case" math. One issue is that only 40-50% of your GCDs will be Devastate, not 100%. Also, you are just looking at damage; there is a pretty hefty Threat bonus to heroic strike that you are getting a LOT more often when using the fast weapon.

What it comes down to is your Heroic Strike uptime. If you have 70+% HS uptime with your fast weapon, it's probably doing to do more damage/threat than the extra damage from Devastate and Deep Wound with the slow weapon.

As with any other piece of gear, you need to select the right weapon for the job. I'd say there certainly is a place for a slow weapon in your arsenal.

this!