Warrior transitioning into a guild MT role

[zortax4484]

I've been reading the site for awhile now, and recently made my prot warrior into my main toon (Used to play my lock more). Now, I'm transitioning into the MT role for a new guild, who is hoping to start in on 10 man Uld, and then proceed from there.

I'm not the greatest tank, but I'm not bad. I've tanked pretty much all the heroics, all of 10/25 Naxx, and also all of 10/25 Vault. I've tanked the first couple bosses in Uld as well.

Basically what I'm looking for is a little advice on how I can fix any gear or talent shortcomings I may have. I know I should lose Iron Will, probably for Imp HS, but other than that I don't know what else I should switch up in the talents. Also, I think my glyphs should probably be changed as well. I do occasionally run into threat issues, but not often, usually its with trigger happy hunters and locks.

Any insight and advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks for your time.

[Solasun]

Make upgrading that shield a priority - at this point, even the one from Culling of Strath heroic is an up/sidegrade although you should aim for something from Ulduar. (Shieldwall of the Breaker perhaps?)

Pick up the emblem of conquest helm and take a look at what you can swap out gem wise at that point. Two +30 stam gems in your legs perhaps?

If you can afford it - swap Blade Ward with Blood Draining. (Personal opinion)

Glyph wise - you say you're running into threat issues - best advice is to swap Glyph of Revenge for Glyph of Vigilance and Glyph of Sunder Armor for Glyph of Devastate.

Getting used to using nameplates (default toggle V key) and tab/click targets as you do your single target "rotation" will easily offset you dropping Sunder Armor glyph.

Example - pulling a pack and conc blowing a mob before tabbing off it for a bit.

Talent build

I'd personally look up some of the common tanking builds such as 15/5/51 or 5/15/51 and go from there. Talents you can drop at this point include Imp. Spell Reflect and Iron Will.

Feel free to play around with Deep Wounds and Incite over 5/5 Shield Spec.

On a final note - take a look at the two Protection Warrior videos in the Project Marmot forums (the recently posted one for basics like skill overview and Ciderhelm's one on tank techniques like pulling and movement.)

Addendum - If possible - try running Flame Leviathan 25 man with no towers with your guild's 10 man team. It's pretty easy considering how many extra demolisher's you get and you can pick up upgrades to your weapon and bracers easily that way.

[zortax4484]

The tier 8.5 helm is actually my next target for emblem spending.

I've been trying to get that shield upgraded for awhile now actually, just haven't been having the luck on drops.

I gemmed the pants like that so I could drop my Repelling Charge trinket in favor of the 170 stamina one and still stay above the 540 minimum, but can always go back to that to get the defense back up. I'm just not currently sure if the stamina for EH or avoidance/defense is more important to me at this point.

I'm also planning on switching to blacksmithing/jewelcrafting once I get the gold to power those up.

This may be ignorant, but I was under the impression Blood Draining only functioned off of bleed damage, or is that just me getting confused with the way it's worded?

I'll probably tinker with my spec some tomorrow and try to clean that up a bit.

I'm also curious about putting multiple tanking sets together for different purposes, but I'd like to get the basics down first. The rest can fall into place after.

[Thaak]

I'm also planning on switching to blacksmithing/jewelcrafting once I get the gold to power those up.

This may be ignorant, but I was under the impression Blood Draining only functioned off of bleed damage, or is that just me getting confused with the way it's worded?

If tanking is the only concern for your professions, you can always go mining/BS or mining/JC, as mining provides you with 60stam and doesn't cost anything to level.

As far as Blood Draining, it stacks up on bleeds and attacks. So if you spec DW its double win. Even if you don't spec DW it still stacks up quickly.