Warrior AOE Tanking

[Uaru]

Alright, well, guys, with new Icecrown instances coming out and making AOE tanking more difficult with holding aggression, I have decided to think outside the box just a little and try to come up with a better AOE situational tank spec that might just do the trick.

I'd love to get input and advices on whether or not others have tried this and put it to the test, but so far, this worked extremely well the few times I used it, and thought I would pass it along for reviews and fine-tunings.

I don't know how to do the link thing, so I will just post it here in text form.

So far, I have found this working best with a higher top end damage weapon with a slower speed, but perhaps others have alternate opinions on that. Giving Cleave that 120% boost to damage severely helps offset the threat difference from Heroic Strike just out of sheer damage.

It seems Blizz is trying to make us hold threat more now with DPS than other mechanics. They could fix warriors by just giving us an AOE pulsing taunt similar to Paladins--or perhaps just make our taunt an AOE ability, rather than single target, and remove the diminishing returns.

Also, I know Cruelty is better than booming voice, but I'll gladly give up that 2% crit to not have to cast that stupid CS so often. I'm lazy like that.

Additionally, I am still tossed as whether or not to change out Glyph of Sunder for Glyph of Shockwave. Having Shockwave on a 17 sec CD is a huge DPS increase, and gives us more viability over time. Sunder is random, though, when adding the effects to different mobs and holding aggro. I hope someone touches on that topic as well.

Time to fine tune. Discuss.

*Edited spec based on my second post below*

<B>Level 80 Warrior (7/13/51)


Arms (7 Points)

Deflection - Rank 5/5
Increases your Parry chance by 5%.

Improved Charge - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of rage generated by your Charge ability by 10.

Fury (13 Points)

Armored to the Teeth - Rank 3/3
Increases your attack power by 3 for every 108 armor value you have.

Booming Voice - Rank 2/2
Increases the area of effect and duration of your Battle Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Commanding Shout by 50%.

Unbridled Wrath - Rank 5/5
Gives you a chance to generate an additional rage point when you deal melee damage with a weapon. Effect occurs more often than Unbridled Wrath (Rank 4).

Improved Cleave - Rank 3/3
Increases the bonus damage done by your Cleave ability by 120%.

Protection (51 Points)

Shield Specialization - Rank 2/5
Increases your chance to block attacks with a shield by 2% and has a 40% chance to generate 5 rage when a block, dodge, or parry occurs.

Improved Thunder Clap - Rank 3/3
Reduces the cost of your Thunder Clap ability by 4 rage points and increases the damage by 30% and the slowing effect by an additional 10%.

Incite - Rank 3/3
Increases the critical strike chance of your Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap and Cleave abilities by 15%.

Anticipation - Rank 5/5
Increases your Dodge chance by 5%.

Last Stand - Rank 1/1
When activated, this ability temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum health for 20 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.

Improved Revenge - Rank 2/2
Increases damage of your Revenge ability by 20% and gives a 50% chance to stun the target for 3 sec.

Shield Mastery - Rank 2/2
Increases your block value by 30% and reduces the cooldown of your Shield Block ability by 20 sec.

Toughness - Rank 5/5
Increases your armor value from items by 10% and reduces the duration of all movement slowing effects by 30%.

Concussion Blow - Rank 1/1
Stuns the opponent for 5 sec and deals [0.75 * AP] damage (based on attack power).

Gag Order - Rank 2/2
Gives your Shield Bash and Heroic Throw abilities a 100% chance to silence the target for 3 sec and increases the damage of your Shield Slam ability by 10%.

One-Handed Weapon Specialization - Rank 5/5
Increases physical damage you deal when a one-handed melee weapon is equipped by 10%.

Improved Defensive Stance - Rank 2/2
While in Defensive Stance all spell damage is reduced by 6% and when you Block, Parry or Dodge an attack you have a 100% chance to become Enraged, increasing Physical damage caused by 10% for 12 sec.

Vigilance - Rank 1/1
Focus your protective gaze on a group or raid target, reducing their damage taken by 3% and transfers % of the threat they cause to you. In addition, each time they are hit by an attack your Taunt cooldown is refreshed. Lasts 30 min. This effect can only be on one target at a time.

Focused Rage - Rank 3/3
Reduces the rage cost of your offensive abilities by 3.

Vitality - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 6% and your Expertise by 6.

Warbringer - Rank 1/1
Your Charge, Intercept and Intervene abilities are now usable while in combat and in any stance. In addition, your Charge, Intercept and Intervene abilities will remove all movement impairing effects.

Devastate - Rank 1/1
Sunder the target's armor causing the Sunder Armor effect. In addition, causes 100% of weapon damage plus 202 for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. The Sunder Armor effect can stack up to 5 times.

Critical Block - Rank 3/3
Your successful blocks have a 60% chance to block double the normal amount and increases your chance to critically hit with your Shield Slam ability by an additional 15%.

Sword and Board - Rank 3/3
Increases the critical strike chance of your Devastate ability by 15% and when your Devastate or Revenge ability deals damage it has a 30% chance of refreshing the cooldown of your Shield Slam ability and reducing its cost by 100% for 5 sec.

Damage Shield - Rank 2/2
Whenever you take damage from or block a melee attack you cause damage equal to 20% of your block value.

Shockwave - Rank 1/1
Sends a wave of force in front of the warrior, causing [0.75 * AP] damage (based on attack power) and stunning all enemy targets within 10 yards in a frontal cone for 4 sec.

</B>Glyphs

Glyph of Cleaving (Major Glyph)
Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1.

Glyph of Blocking (Major Glyph)
Increases your block value by 10% for 10 sec after using your Shield Slam ability.

Glyph of Sunder Armor (Major Glyph)
Your Sunder Armor ability affects a second nearby target.

Glyph of Thunder Clap (Minor Glyph)
Increases the radius of your Thunder Clap ability by 2 yards.

Glyph of Command (Minor Glyph)
Increases the duration of your Commanding Shout ability by 2 min.

Glyph of Charge (Minor Glyph)
Increases the range of your Charge ability by 5 yards.

[Uaru]

Alright, well, after using this a little more I had to make some minor adjustments.

First was the attempt at seeing how piercing howl would work. Well, I was going to experiment on how this worked with adds that peel off and chase after group members. I discovered it's radius just wasn't enough to be of any value, so I dumped it.

What I did next was pulled shield spec down to 2/5, and added 2 points back into Improved Revenge 2/2. With two points remaining, I placed them into Improved Charge 2/2.

So, now, I'm using 7/13/51 as my AOE tank spec, and quite well loving it so far. I seem to be holding threat much better in AOE situations.

The best way to test this is to run Halls of Stone or Halls of Reflection--as the events both have multiuple waves of mobs, and see how effective it can be. Positioning and timing are everything, of course, but with being forced to PUG groups so often now with the new group finding tool, it pays to have the edge over PVE situations with a failsafe when DPS gets silly on you.

I still might drop Glyph of Sunder for either Shockwave or Devastate. Not really sure what I want to do as of yet--I'm so use to cycling through the mobs, that I seem to lose the benefit Sunder gives me. I may as well just get devastate so I can double stack the sunders.

Anyhow, has anyone else given this a thought yet?

[Griff]

I've stuck with the standard 15/3/53 spec for the ICC five mans without a problem. The only real change I do for heroics is using threat trinkets (DMC:Greatness +90str & Grim Toll or a crit trinket)

If this spec works for you though, then definitely keep at it.

[Uaru]

I've stuck with the standard 15/3/53 spec for the ICC five mans without a problem. The only real change I do for heroics is using threat trinkets (DMC:Greatness +90str & Grim Toll or a crit trinket)

If this spec works for you though, then definitely keep at it.

Likewise. I used the previous spec as well successfully. Just, this spec made it noticeably easier to manage.

It is my guess we'll see more AOE related instances from Blizz in the future. I think they're "attempting" to force us back into appropriately CCing mobs, rather than burning through entire groups like we do normal heroic instances.

Nonetheless, yeah, this spec may not be for all, but it's certainly helped with making AOE a lot simpler from this warrior's perspective.

[Uaru]

Well, overall, I decided to go back to my old spec for now.

One thing I noticed was I had a decline in building threat in some situations using this build--I'm assuming due to lack of Deep Wounds.

I'm not sure the extra damage in Cleave outweighs the continuous effect of having Deep Wounds on the mobs.

If someone was able to put together real numbers, that would help.

All in all, this build works much better in HoR for some reason, but outside of that, the old build seems to hold threat better in all other situations.

I wish others would give some imput, as I have only been able to use this situationally to test it.

Anyhow, was worth a shot nonetheless.

[evanjames]

Uaru -

I run with a very similiar AOE tanking spec.

Differences are

- i have taken 5/5 Imp demo shout to reduce mob attack power further, dont forget its radius becomes larger too, making it good for initial aggro on disparate groups.
- i have taken 5/5 Shield spec - basically makes up for unbridled wrath, i have no threat issues
- i dont have 2/2 revenge, i see the 50% stun chance as adding little to my ability to keep adds under control, i seem to manage fine without it, i spent one point in imp charge and one in piercing howl, situationally useful both of them, might spec them however into imp spell reflect due to ICC caster changes.

My major glyphs are largely the same - cleaving and sunder work amazingly. IMO you should keep sunder over devastate, even if you are cycling. With my AoE tanking spec i rarely have any mobs run for others, and if i do, a simple taunt and shield slam brings em back into line

In sum - its a nice spec orientation to have and nice to know others are using it.

Aerei - Aman'Thul

[Uaru]

Uaru -

I run with a very similiar AOE tanking spec.

Differences are

- i have taken 5/5 Imp demo shout to reduce mob attack power further, dont forget its radius becomes larger too, making it good for initial aggro on disparate groups.
- i have taken 5/5 Shield spec - basically makes up for unbridled wrath, i have no threat issues
- i dont have 2/2 revenge, i see the 50% stun chance as adding little to my ability to keep adds under control, i seem to manage fine without it, i spent one point in imp charge and one in piercing howl, situationally useful both of them, might spec them however into imp spell reflect due to ICC caster changes.

My major glyphs are largely the same - cleaving and sunder work amazingly. IMO you should keep sunder over devastate, even if you are cycling. With my AoE tanking spec i rarely have any mobs run for others, and if i do, a simple taunt and shield slam brings em back into line

In sum - its a nice spec orientation to have and nice to know others are using it.

Aerei - Aman'Thul

Yeah, I actually converted it back to 5/5 shield spec because of threat issues at first; removing imp revenge, and a point of charge as well. I got rid of UW as a result, and also placed the 5 into IDS.

Although, it still just didn't seem to pull off what Deep Wounds does in terms of AOE threat like I had hoped. Nonetheless, it's still a great spec, and works really well in HoR.

ICC is certainly preparing us for some major changes to our well known cookie cutter specs, that's for sure.

[evanjames]

Thanks for your reply mate,

I am unsure as to whether or not Deep Wounds really provides that much more threat in such situations. I'm no theorycrafter, but I have noticed that in my DW spec, it contributes at max 5% to my overall damage. In short, I am also unsure as to whether or not specced cleave is better than deep wounds.

In my AoE spec, with improved cleave (hitting for more than HS fully specced) and glyphed, it is providing more damage (8%), and combined with sunder glyph cycle - it all seems to cycle together - im going to go with that and say for now that it works better for me than DW.

However, if anyone wants to point out the error of my ways, tell me! I'm considering dropping to a deep wounds spec and keeping the cleave and sunder glyphs for aoe tanking... dunno.


Aerei - Aman'Thul