New Prot Warrior Level 30 Needs Advice ;-)

[jockstrapper]

Hey Guys,

(*please read the below with tanking in mind - not overly concerned with levelling - I'm finding the prot warrior a damn sight easier than my level 30 Holy priest lol)

Having never played a melee class before, let alone a tank, I've done a fair bit of reading on this fine forum and on EJ and others to try and get clued-up, but struggling to find info on prot warrior / tanking at level 30. So any advice is welcome.

My main question at the moment is:

1 - Specifically for tanking as a Prot Warrior, is a faster sword better than a sword with more dmg? You can see my sword here - The World of Warcraft Armory

I just chose the fastest sword I had as I went along at the moment, but was wondering if I should get the BoA sword for level 1-80. Looks like a nice stat on it, but it's a lot slower.

I'm glyphed for Revenge/Sunder/Bloodrage, so will a faster sword allow me to get off more Revenge + free Heroic Strikes?

2 - Rotation. Any advice or criticism you guys have on what I'm doing here? I'm basically using :

Defensive Stance - Taunt/Shield Block, Revenge/HS, Sunders and Mocking Blow when needed at the moment. I'm working Thunderclap and Demo Shout in there as well with mobs. Tried a Challenging Shout>Battle Stance / Retalliation once or twice on 5/6 mobs which was fun, though a long C/D - any other tips on how to maintain aggro?

Although that seems to going okay, I was wondering if it was worth chucking in an early Rend for more damage, or Disarm maybe....damage on me doesn't really seem to be a problem though, so not sure whether Disarm is useful most of the time..

Thanks in advance guys.

[Wiredude]

Generally speaking a faster weapon is better for Warrior tanks. For exactly the reasons you mentioned, it lets you get off more Heroic Strikes and Cleaves, which allow you to generate more threat.
As for rotation, when soloing it's not huge, other than building your habits. I don't remember what abilities you get when, but you don't want to be using Taunt and Mocking Blow as part of your rotation. You want to save those for when you need them (which you basically never will when solo), they're a "get back here" tool. Shield Slam is the big priority in my rotation, but I think that comes along later in the tree. Same with Devastate and Concussion Blow. Revenge is great, especially glyphed. I've bound (as do many) Heroic Strike to the mouse wheel, so I can just spin it when necessary. Sunder is a good tool to use while it's the best you have, I think Devastate is a superior ability once you get it. Thunderclap is a big tool as well, it's one of our few AoE threat tools as a prot warrior, so make use of it as necessary.
I don't know how much actually grouping/tanking you're actually doing at this point, but that's really where threat generation comes into play, it's irrelevant when solo.
Also might I suggest you do some reading over at TankingTips.com - A guide to tanking as a Warrior in World of Warcraft, it's a blog specifically for prot warriors. I've learned a ton there, and here as well.

[Griff]

Faster or slower weapon isn't going to matter for you while leveling. Use whatever weapon gives you the most benefit from itemization. Fast weapons are favored by endgame tanks because of the heroic strike spam you cited - you'll find when solo question however, that you will be rage capped so a slower, higher damage weapon might actually be a better choice for you.

[jockstrapper]

Thanks for the reply Wired -

Generally speaking a faster weapon is better for Warrior tanks. For exactly the reasons you mentioned, it lets you get off more Heroic Strikes and Cleaves, which allow you to generate more threat.

Smashing thanks, that's what I needed to know ;-) Although I haven't been prioritising Cleave so much - that's good for multiple mobs is it? I see, it hits target plus another.

As for rotation, when soloing it's not huge, other than building your habits. I don't remember what abilities you get when, but you don't want to be using Taunt and Mocking Blow as part of your rotation. You want to save those for when you need them (which you basically never will when solo), they're a "get back here" tool.

I'm using Taunt to pull, but not as part of the rotation as such (have used it the other night running Stockades with a mate who has a level 31 Pally when we were practising taking threat off each other)

I don't know how much actually grouping/tanking you're actually doing at this point, but that's really where threat generation comes into play, it's irrelevant when solo.

I'm trying to group for stuff as I go, or pull multiple mobs when questing as I thought that might help me practice position amongst other things - although aggro isn't an issue when questing, it's still an opportunity for me to practice rotating through the mobs and getting used to the abilities I have as a warrior I suppose. I thought running Stocks with my Pally mate would be good as I heard Pallies have very good aoe damage compared to Warriors, so to try and keep aggro off him would be good practice. I suppose the best practice I can get is grouping for dungeons though?

Also might I suggest you do some reading over at TankingTips.com - A guide to tanking as a Warrior in World of Warcraft, it's a blog specifically for prot warriors. I've learned a ton there, and here as well.

Thanks for the tip - I've headed over there and listened to a podcast or two already ;-)

[jockstrapper]

Thanks Griff - I'll bear that in mind while levelling & try to keep a couple of options in the bag ;-)