Talents, Serious Business.

[Narkanius]

So I'm just one day away from my first serious push into BWD and I've been obsessing with my spec. I have found a core I'm comfortable with, but I have one problem:

Is there some order of preference to the threat/dps talents?

Incite adds 5% crit to HS per point allotted and has a proc on HS crit that gains value as your crit rating increases.
Heavy Repercussions is a 16.67% or 33.33% damage buff to SS at 1 or 2 points respectively (assuming you pop SB on CD, which isn't likely the case).

Cruelty is static 5% crit to SS per point allotted and is required to get Rude Interruption.
Rude Interruption gives a static 5% damage bonus for 15 or 30 seconds at 1 or 2 points respectively following a successful interrupt.

War Academy is a static 5% damage buff to HS, Cleave and Victory Rush per point allotted and is required to get Deep Wounds.
Deep Wounds adds 16% of your weapon damage to your crits per point allotted, for a maximum of 48% at 3 points.

I often find myself looking at these threat/dps talents against survivability talents like Blood Craze and Impending Victory and utility talents like Gag Order. I realize Blood and Thunder and Thunderstruck are also talents often exchanged with these, but I view them as incredibly useful in any AoE tanking situation.

I've been starting with this build: http://wowtal.com/#k=ffWcUxV.a8t.warrior.
I then have to allocate 3 points amongst Incite, Gag Order, Impending Victory, and/or Heavy Repercussions. Then I take 3 in Sword and Board and 1 in Shockwave.

Now I throw the obligatory 2 in Field Dressing, and I have 8 more to divide amongst Incite, Gag Order, Impending Victory, Heavy Repercussions, War Academy, Deep Wounds, Cruelty, Rude Interruption, Piercing Howl, and the much less attractive Drums of War and Booming Voice. This is where everything for me crashes.

What build would you make for serious BWD progression raiding? (I realize not everyone takes Blood and Thunder and Thunderstruck for progression raiding, you can remove these should you so desire).

[Sebadoh]

I'm afraid I can't give any warrior-specific advice, being that my only 85 tank is a DK (and it's an alt! My main is a pwiesty).

But I will say this - you seem to be very very focused on your talent spec. Unless you're skipping a 100% crucial talent like Bastion of Defense or Toughness, a misplaced point here or there is not going to kill you.

You're also going to find yourself doing a lot of tweaking with your spec as you learn the fights better and figure out what works for you. If you need the threat, you may find yourself speccing for threat talents - if you find that Vengeance takes care of threat for you (as everyone here claims), you may find yourself going after survival/utility talents like Blood Craze or Safeguard. So don't worry too much about getting it 100% correct on the first go-around. I know that I'm still tweaking my Disc and Holy specs to fit the situation and my style.

[scotty]

well im not sure how much this is going to help you but, i think i've been have'n the same problem you've been have'n, try'n to figure out where to put the few left over talents i have or what i need to take out of to put into something else (i think i've respect like 20 times sence i hit lvl 85) and well what i figure'd out is theres two completely different ways people have been going with prot warrior's.

the first is a normal heroic trash mob kinda tanking set up with alot of dps/threat specifically AoE dps/threat and not to much on the survivability and would inclued talents like blood and thunder, thunderstruck, and blitz...

the second is for single target raid bosses with mostly survivability and single target dps/ threat talents and almost no AoE, and would inclued talents like blood craze, and impending victory...

so id say the 1st step would be figure'n out what kinda tanking set up you need, most people are proboly going to start with the AoE heroic trash mob setup, cause you have to get geared threw heriocs before you start raiding anyway... but once you do start tanking raids your probably going to end up respec'n again into more utility and getting rid of the AoE talents.

also one more thing, i noticed with cata that no one thing makes a big difference, its a combination of several things that adds up into something usefull, like deep wounds - it by its self dosen't do much damage but added with everything else your doing it adds up, and the same with impending victory and blood craze - by there self they dont do much, but add them together and put field dressing on top of it, it adds up.

[MellvarTank]

I would avoid impending victory, it just doesn't give enough to make it a worthwhile point. I would also skip cruelty and war academy for single target. Basically for a boss tanking spec I would run field dressing, blood craze, and the rest in the prot tree. Raid comp would change a few talents that I would take, including gag order.