Long post, lots of questions

[titanstout]

Hi,

I'm new to being a warrior. Hit 80 on 8/2/09 and have been running heroics a bit and 2 Naxx10 clears. Been Uld10 once up to Freya and that was it.

Plan on going to Naxx25 and then later back into Uld10. The reason for this is simiple: I'm not ready for Uld10. That content is a LOT harder than Naxx10 (obviously) and I really needed to learn more about raid tanking before taking on complicated fights.

I did tank Razorscale (with the MT), dps'd on XT, tank Kologarn's body, off tanked on Auriya (however she spells her name), and tanked the gauntlet on Thorim. Couple of things I noticed.

Certain mobs have to be taunted back and forth and on occasion my taunt fails as well as my CS. It really didn't matter because we got through it, but I found it annoying. So question #1: Should I carry taunt glyphs around for situations like that?

I've tried carrying a couple sets of glyphs around but it really gets expensive. I was carrying Cleave/SW for heroic trash and then carrying Revenge/Blocking for boss raid fights. I've been keeping Resonating Power at all times.

In heroics I lose threat to geared dps and I think most groups understand that. I just taunt back and they die pretty fast.

Is my expertise too low? I'm at 27 right now.

Is my dodge too low for Naxx 25 and Uld 10? I'm at 23.61 %.

I'm not clear on what avoidance stats matter more.

Seems to me Dodge #1, Parry #2, Blocking #3.

Is that right?

Also I've heard some fights call for avoidance, some block, others just straight up hit points. Can you help me figure out which stats I should focus on for different boss fights?

Like for example: I should get my avoidance really high for Patchwerk right?

On fights like KT I should focus on higher health due to the magical damage?

Nowadays a tank just get spoon fed all this gear, but doesn't always know what to do with it. I've played since July 2005, but always as a healer (resto druid).

I ask players what they think, but it's hard for them to give detailed responses in game, they would have to stop what they are doing, look at my gear and type out an explanation. Simply put some people know all this stuff, but are not willing to spend the time to help a noob figure it all out. On my resto druid it was all second nature. I just stacked spirit/spellpower and just 'knew' what spells to use and when because of years of experience.

I'd not make a post like this and just suffer through the trials and tribulations of figuring it all out over time, but as a tank I have to consider the other 9/24 people in the raid. If I mess up they die. It's hard being the one that messed up and wiped the group because I didn't know how to gear properly.

If you have time and experience with tanking as a warrior in the ulduar please look at my armory and tell me if I'm gemming/enchanting/gearing right.

The World of Warcraft Armory

I have some other pieces in my bags, but the stuff I'm wearing now seemed like the best choice out of them all.

Plans:

T8 helm
Patchwerk25 shield
Triumph ring first, then we'll see.

Any feedback appreciate. And by the way tanking is the most fun I've had in this game and I've raided as a healer and a dps
(rogue/mage).

edit:
typos

[Glittersmith]

Certain mobs have to be taunted back and forth and on occasion my taunt fails as well as my CS. It really didn't matter because we got through it, but I found it annoying. So question #1: Should I carry taunt glyphs around for situations like that?

You might experience diminishing returns on taunt which makes the boss immune to taunts, I personally have never used Taunt glyph and don't think its necessary but its a matter of taste I guess.

Also remember that you can use your Mocking Blow to make the boss focus you till your taunt is off cd again.

I've tried carrying a couple sets of glyphs around but it really gets expensive. I was carrying Cleave/SW for heroic trash and then carrying Revenge/Blocking for boss raid fights. I've been keeping Resonating Power at all times.

Carry around Inscription mats and threaten some scribe in the raid to make glyphs for you, its much much cheaper.

Is my expertise too low? I'm at 27 right now.

Its not to low. Boss dodges is removed at 26expertise and after that the benefit from expertise is cut in half, it is still a very good threat stat though.

Is my dodge too low for Naxx 25 and Uld 10? I'm at 23.61 %.

I'm not clear on what avoidance stats matter more.

Seems to me Dodge #1, Parry #2, Blocking #3.

Your gear seems to be fine enough for uld10 normal modes. And Dodge beats parry as long as you don't have a dodge rating : parry rating of over 1.85 : 1. Block is not an avoidance stat but a mitigation stat, for boss fights its a weak stat due to the big hits that bosses do.

Also I've heard some fights call for avoidance, some block, others just straight up hit points. Can you help me figure out which stats I should focus on for different boss fights?

Like for example: I should get my avoidance really high for Patchwerk right?

Stamina is king, there is nothing good about avoiding 29 attacks in a row just to get two shot when the boss hits you twice in a row.

On fights like KT I should focus on higher health due to the magical damage?

KT shouldn't really get off to many of his frostbolts on you in the first place. But yeah stamina is good here to.

If you have time and experience with tanking as a warrior in the ulduar please look at my armory and tell me if I'm gemming/enchanting/gearing right.

The World of Warcraft Armory

I would put 22def on chest and free up one of those 20def gems for a 30stam gem. This will net you more defense and more hp.

Armory just died whilst I checked your gear and that was the first thing I noticed before that.

[titanstout]

I would put 22def on chest and free up one of those 20def gems for a 30stam gem. This will net you more defense and more hp.

Armory just died whilst I checked your gear and that was the first thing I noticed before that.

Damn! I wish I would have thought of that, yes I will do that tonight.

[Crommi]

As far as talents go, I'd drop two points from Cruelty and move them over to Imp. Revenge. You get enough crit from Protection tree to keep Deep Wounds ticking all the time.

Personally I'm not a big fan of Glyph of Resonating Power, it's just that during AoE tanking you're usually sitting at 100 rage and limited by your cooldowns. During single-target bossfights it gets moved down to low-priority debuff that you don't even have to use if there's DK in the raid keeping up Frost Fever.

[titanstout]

As far as talents go, I'd drop two points from Cruelty and move them over to Imp. Revenge. You get enough crit from Protection tree to keep Deep Wounds ticking all the time.

Personally I'm not a big fan of Glyph of Resonating Power, it's just that during AoE tanking you're usually sitting at 100 rage and limited by your cooldowns. During single-target bossfights it gets moved down to low-priority debuff that you don't even have to use if there's DK in the raid keeping up Frost Fever.

Sounds good I'll give it a try. Was thinking of dropping Cruelty, but never crossed my mind to pick up imp'd revenge.

Thought I would drop Cruelty and put 1 point in Focused Rage and then drop the other point in imp'd spell reflect. But then I've never seen a warrior do this, so yea I'll try what you said. Makes sense to do more damage with Revenge despite the fact that the stun portion of the talent won't work on bosses.

Resonating power can go, you're right. Probably won't miss it at all.

New question: How often are you guys finding yourselves using Intervene?

[Glittersmith]

New question: How often are you guys finding yourselves using Intervene?

Not as often as I should do. Most of the time I use it only for moving around when needed.

[Gumurak]

I don't use intervene that much myself. On fights like council and ignis I do of course. But here's the deal man. If you didn't know what you were doing your group wouldnt have gotten Thorim down, and the other bosses that you did. You are doing fine.

I do have to agree thou, drop the resonating. I would also drop the glyph of blocking and use a glyph of shield wall. it has helped my rotation greatly to have it brought to 3 mins instead of 5. The 20% loss on mitigation isn't really a big deal. Some people seem to forget how huge a 40% reduction is yet alone a 60%. It's really not necissary to save them as oh shit buttons anymore.

I also agree with moving the 2 points to improved revenge. Helps a ton exspecially in trash fights like on the way to general. Other than that you are in fantastic shape, the rest is just experience. And that youve already shown you can do on your own. I mean srsly, look at what you have done. Average tanks can't faceroll through the content you finished.

Also, 25 man naxx will help you with a couple pieces but its not necissary. remember that blizzard designed the game to have seperate paths of progression now. that means a naxx 10 geared tank can roll through ulduar 10. Even though it's not suggested, it can be done. Several of us have.

[Griff]

One other thing - bossfights in Ulduar aren't really more complex than in Naxx (for the most part, Yogg might have more elements to it than any fight in Naxx.)

The primary difference between Naxx and Ulduar is just that Ulduar bosses hit harder so deficiencies in tanks and healers are more apparent.

Intervene is actually pretty useful on some fights. If you're the offtank, you can intervene on people who are having threat issues and I use it pretty often on fights like Hodir if the snow pile is distant. In raids, if dps need to be intervened because something is beating on them and taunt isn't an option, they are probably going to be dead before you can intervene them anyways so its more of an extra mobility tool than anything in my experience.

[krc]

ve tried carrying a couple sets of glyphs around but it really gets expensive. I was carrying Cleave/SW for heroic trash and then carrying Revenge/Blocking for boss raid fights. I've been keeping Resonating Power at all times.

Get a guild inspriptionist cheaper and Glyph of Devastate is much more useful than glyph of Resonating Power. Glyph of Resonating Power will only help on trash pulls and won't even help that much on trash, Glyph of Devastate massively increases your threat generation.

Is my expertise too low? I'm at 27 right now.

No your expertise if fine you only need 26 for the dodge cap but more expertise never hurts. Another thing to do if your gearing for some threat is try to inch a little closer to the hit cap.

s my dodge too low for Naxx 25 and Uld 10? I'm at 23.61 %.

Nah your dodge is fine unless your in an avoidance set

I'm not clear on what avoidance stats matter more.

Seems to me Dodge #1, Parry #2, Blocking #3.

Well right now for Avoidance you should try to keep a dodge to parry ratio of 1.875:1 because of diminishing returns and the way they hurt parry a little more than dodge. Stay away from block, block is not a very good stat because of how heavy bosses hit and how weak block blocks for.

Also I've heard some fights call for avoidance, some block, others just straight up hit points. Can you help me figure out which stats I should focus on for different boss fights?

You heard right EH(armor and hp) Is mainly the most useful for regular swing timers unpredictable melee spike damage like cleaves and heavy magical damage. Avoidance works well for bosses that hit very fast, very slow or bosses that hit predictable that your healers cant keep up with. Gearing towards threat is mainly accomplished by getting hit and expertise.

I would replace 22 defense with 275 health and 16 defense with 225 armor. Thats the beauty of multiple gear sets you can gem and enchant the ones with the most EH with EH and the ones with the most avoidance with avoidance gems and enchants.

I use intervene only when Off tanking and if its a threat sensitive fight I will Intervene the tops dps to give our Main tank some slack.

I hope that answers any questions you might have