WarTank 101: The Primer

[Tengenstein]

Bladeward was a point of contention back in the day, I never got the impression it was all that good at 80, Blood draining was my enchant of choice back then. the problem was that you just couldn't get it to stack quickly and the more mobs beating on you the quicker you ate your stacks. I wouldn't be wuprised if the weapon chain worked out to be better survivabilty due to the fight ending that much quicker.

[Loganisis]

Also, and lastly, I didn't have the mats for Windwalker or Landslide enchant, as sexy as it is, and mending just seems rather useless. Is Blade Ward still a decent enchant? It seemed way more beneficial than using a Weapon Chain.

Blade Ward was sub optimal back in the day (missed then when I read though) to most warriors because it was 100% RNG. Tanks didn't have anywhere near full combat table coverage, so the chance of it actually helping, and more importantly, helping when needed, was small. Blood Draining, which was usually up for a small heal (equal to a health pot) and was a 'smart' heal, used only when low on health, offered 100% guaranteed health - which actually, since WotLK was very much pure EH (rather than trying to turn block into EH by covering the table fully) was pretty good. It wasn't just a 2k heal or whatever, it was 2k heal + it's effect with armor, which effectively made it 2,000 * (1/(1-damage reduction)) = which with 66% damage reduction, made it a 6k heal for non-magic damage and an 8k heal if you could hit the cap of 75% damage reduction from armor (which many top-end tanks could). Mongoose was the other one that was mentioned, but while it was pretty much BiS for pallies who could proc it off sneezing, it's uptime wasn't as good for warriors.

So where does this leave Bladeward in Wrath?

Not sure it's very good.

A lot of this is based off of hearing that Bladeward has been nerfed above level 80, so either it's proc chance or its proc isn't all that high at 85.

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...ight=bladeward
http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.p...ight=bladeward

Both have some discussion on it - it looks like above 2 stacks (400 rating) isn't very common, which would be something less than 2% parry after diminishing returns. <2% parry and a 20% uptime makes it average less than .4% parry average.

Mending is meh. Weapon Chain is meh. Honestly, if it's not windwalk...

I would suggest running the TB dailies for 6 days, that will give you more than enough gold to buy the mats (and maybe a few greens to DE so you don't need to buy the celestial essences if you know a friendly enchanter) to get windwalk.



I think bladeward does merit a revist - but I think the reality is the nerf to proc rate above level 80 and the level of DR players are looking at for parry makes it not very good.

I would still go Windwalk > mending >= weapon chain

[Crittable]

I think bladeward does merit a revist - but I think the reality is the nerf to proc rate above level 80 and the level of DR players are looking at for parry makes it not very good.

Fixed.

[Loganisis]

Fixed.

doh!

[theodisius]

This is a great guide, thank you!

It should be copied or linked to in the guides forum though. I looked there for stuff but the prot war guides there are rather outdated. I only stumbled on this guide by following Loganisis's sig.

[zaralina]

Thank you for this, although I am terrified about learning how to tank, and reading as much as I possibly can, also listening to the tanks in my guild, I've been given and read much insight about this role! Thank you for this! Bookmark'd!

[Gregasaurous]

I believe i have seen my shockwave miss a number of times. Not calling anybody out, i was in combat and therefor not paying exact attention to details of that kind, but i'm pretty sure ist still misses.