WotLK A Letter to Low Level Prot Warriors & Others:

[Kronosxviii]

Hello,

Leveling tanks and those who are friends with said meatshields, this is a post with some tips for low level warriors who are looking to tank low level dungeons and beyond:

1. Sunder Armor(SA)=Good/Heroic Strike(HS)=Bad: When tanking a dungeon threat is more important than damage since you have 3 slav-minions killing stuff for you. :3 And since ONE Sunder Armor does Three-to-Four Heroic Strikes worth of threat, SA is thus far better than HS in terms of threat/rage(T/R).

1.1 Talent: level 51, Devastate, is SA with a bit of damage. Switch to it when you obtain it, obviously.

2. Shield Block(SB): Your most important multipurpose spell in the early game, obtained around level 16-20. Pull lots of mobs? Shield Block. Need threat on lots of mobs? Shield Block. Need to burst a mob or boss down? Shield Block. When specced it has a 40s cool-down(CD) and a 10s uptime, so use it often and carry your group through dungeons.

3. Potions: Lots of people obtain lots of healing potions that they don't need, nor use, and throw them for super cheap on the AH, so buying 5 or 20 is highly advised.

4. Glyph of Revenge: Allows the use of a free Heroic Strike as a buff, lasts around 8-12sec. This can be a trap though, as you generate no rage when you HS, so if you need rage and SB is on CD, just keep auto attacking as you have 5-6seconds to consume the buff before you can revenge again for another free HS.

5. Threat-Cap(T-C): The Threat Cap, is the theoretical bar that you as the tank will often obtain and set against your dps. Where you will have so much threat on your target that no dps will ever be able to overcome the mountain of threat on said target. When you achieve the threat cap I recommend doing one of three things: 1) Focus another target to reach the T-C on it
2) Stop consuming rage on your target and just build up rage for your next pull
3) If your healer has the mana and the next pull isn't too dangerous, pull more mobs

6. Line-Of-Site(LOS): Spells hurt and healers need to see you for non instant healing-spells, so break LOS on corners for enemy casters and pay attention to where your healer is standing. If you can kite a caster mob back and fourth on a pillar or corner your group can kill it while preventing yourself from taking any spell damage.

7. Armor is KING: pre-58, You simply won't find a lot of armor pieces with enough Stamina too outweigh the benefit of using a piece with a higher armor value. Keeping your armor value up to date is important because you can easily go from 50% damage-reduction(DR) to 30% DR just by gaining a few too many levels too fast. And since you should be "dodging" spells, see tip-5, 80-95% damage taken will be physical, another reason to get more armor.

8. Demoralizing Shout(DS): Only practical in two situations, but your healer will love you. 1. You pulled a fk ton of melee mobs. 2. Boss hits like a truck and is physical only. DS, will reduce the damage dealt by around 10-20% as long as you keep your DS trained up to your level. Note: does like no threat so if you need aoe threat I advise Thunder Clapping first then DS'ing.

9. Talent-Level 40-ish: Vigilance, doesn't matter when you get this exactly, but it helps A LOT if you're in a group with heirlooms especially if you don't have any. Throw it on the person who is taking aggro off of you most often and it will reset the CD of your taunt everytime they're hit.

10. Talent-Level 50: Warbringer(Wb): Grab Wb before devastate, period. Devastate, does the exact same amount of threat as SA, even with the bonus damage, it's just how they scale. Warbringer though, opens up the mobility of the warrior class, Macro:

#showtooltip
/cleartarget [dead][noharm]
/startAttack
/castsequence [harm] reset=15 Charge, Intercept; [help] Intervene;
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

11. Talent-Level 60: Shockwave(Sw): Is similar to Shield Block in that it can be used offensively(AoE-threat/damage) or defensively(stun). Use it wisely and DON'T USE SHIELD BLOCK WHEN YOU SHOCKWAVE. 4second stun will eat up time on your SB. "Oh-Sh!t" Tactic: 4s of stopping damage taken(Sw) followed by 10seconds of heavily reduced or nullified damage taken(SB) = 14seconds of free time for your healer to get their heads out of their a$z.

12. If you know you're going to take a lot of damage, don't be afraid of using Shield Wall(SW) or Last Stand(LS) preferably before the damage actually lands. Because taking the damage then burning a major CD means you have reduced no damage and your health is likely very low if you're not dead. And while you will reduce the next wave of damage, your healer might not be on top of things meaning, you probably won't live through the volley even with a CD active.

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If I can think of anymore I'll add them some time later. Or other people can add more via comments etc.

For those wondering, I wanted to make this post because I'm leveling up a priest on lordaeron as my second character to cap and I have run into some terrible tanks. I'm of the opinion that they're just new to the game or the warrior class and aren't sure how to tank with it optimally. Or they could be sh!t. /shrugs

And yes, prot warrior is the first spec/class I got to 80 on Lord so I like to think that my memory of things to take note of while leveling as prot is somewhat accurate.

[Cuervo27062]

Hi man, first of all: Thanks a lot for this. I'm becoming a tank for the first time with a warrior, I never had a prot war, so I'm reading guides, watching , etc.
This is really helpful cause I'm entering in low dungeons now, so this are very nice tips.
I have a question for you:
I've seen in too many videos and guides, and in all of those, a prot war starts his pulls with charge: Defensive stance==> charge.
But idk if I'm missing something, or is just for the lvl, the talents or what (like I said, I never had a prot war), but I have charge available ONLY in battle stance. When I switch to defensive stance, it becomes unusable.Would you tell me if there's something wrong that I'm doing or what?
I'm lvl 16, but in lordaeron I'll be low for a while, so I want to learn.
And another, Is there a rotation for lows? Cause we have not too much spells or skills yet. I don't want to **** up the party for losing aggro or diying early.Thanks for all, I'll be waiting.

[Kronosxviii]

@Cuervo27062

1) Charge: You won't be able to charge in defensive stance until you get to level 50 and pick up the Warbringer talent, see tip 10. For early levels could could use a macro for a replacement:

If you don't know how to make a macro:
[ /m ] to open the macro menu, name it what ever you want, I personally name my macro's after the keybind they will go into, ie: E macro wil go into my E keybind, R for R, 1 for 1, etc. Select the red ' ? ' to allow the macro to show the icon of the skill being cast.

#showtooltip
/cleartarget [dead][noharm]
/startAttack
/castsequence charge, defensive stance
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Something people do is charge, 1 auto attack, Thunder clap, then defensive stance for establishing aoe threat, note that thunder clap doesn't do a lot of threat outside of D-Stance and the bulk of its threat comes from the fact that it hits many targets. Meaning in D-stance let's say it does 200 threat and hits 4 targets allowing it to do as much threat as 1 Sunder Armor(on a naked target, as SA does more threat/stack of SA) spread across the 4 targets. Outside of D-stance it will do like 80-100? threat per target but it will establish threat which is good for keeping mobs off your healers.

Strategy 2: If you're going to charge into a pack of 4+mobs, charge->D-stance(while charging) -> Shield Block(when you arrive for maximum SB usage) = enough rage for a D-stance boosted Thunder clap, since 1 block = 5 rage.
NOTE: that auto attacks generate rage depending on weapon speed so if you generate 5 rage / auto Atk, you could do Strat. 2 on packs of (3+mobs + 1Auto) for establishing initial threat.

2) Rotation: For warrior, druid, and kinda DK tanks there is no set rotation it's just a priority system that changes on what you're fighting.

Abilities Worth Pressing:

Low Rage: Revenge, Sunder Armor, Thunder Clap, Free-Heroic Strike(Iffy: See tip 4), Shield Slam Level 40?(if you have the rage for it, note it's expensive and only does around 20-30% more threat than SA)

High Rage: Revenge, Shield Slam, Sunder Armor, Thunder Clap, Demo Shout, Free-Heroic Strike, Cleave/Heroic Strike, Other(I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting that's never used).

Super Rage: Very rare in the early game but does happen quite often when fighting raid bosses. Essentially, you have infinite rage and you are incapable of using all of it. -> Shield Slam, Revenge, Devastate(SA stacks)x5, Thunder Clap, Demo Shout, and SPAM HeroicStrike(Single Target)/Cleave(when there are adds)

Talking about threat makes me think I should explain how threat works. :3

Tip 13: Threat,
is in general something that must be overcome for someone to pull aggro(the mobs attention) off of someone else and onto themselves.

Melee vs Range Examples:

Melee: 110%
Tank has 100 threat on the target, that means for a person(dps/healer/other) to take aggro on the target while standing -->in melee range<-- they must deal 110 threat and above.

Range: 130%
Tank again with 100 threat, person 2 has to deal 130 and above threat to take aggro.

For a tank, what this means is that it's important for you to be the person pulling/establishing initial threat as it forces people to go above and beyond your initial threat value to pull mobs off of you. In reverse if someone ninja pulls and you don't have rage/taunt available it's going to be a b!tch to gain aggro on whatever was pulled.

14) Taunt:
Only gives you as much threat as the target you're taunting off of has on the enemy mob. Example: Billy has 1k threat on a mob, you taunt, you AND billy now have 1k threat on the mob. Taunt forces the target to attack you... For 8-10seconds.

NOTE: If you do nothing to the mob, when the taunt duration is over the mob WILL run back and attack billy as you will have not overcome the 110/130% aggro threshhold.

[Overloard99]

Instead of sundern armor you use devastate when you get it. It's far better. Also you should spam heroic strike often in ICC because you're going to always have tons of rage. Or spam cleave for good aoe damage.

[jendah]

Well written a lot of useful information, especially for new wars.

I would just add a bit more info about taunting. Single target taunt is not the only thing you can use.. war also has "Challenging Shout" (that works the same way as regular taunt, only for 6 seconds but for all mobs around you). And also "Mocking Blow" - meele range attack that works like "mini" taunt in that it forces enemy to attack you, but doesnt set you threat to top of the table.

[Badniouf]

I'm leveling a war prot right now (54) so I will add some details:

1. You may not use mana but your healer do:
It has not been said but I think it is the most important advice as it is the main cause of death in dungeon: your healer uses mana and can be oom.
Before pulling, ALWAYS, look at the manapool of your healer
Even in fight, looking at his manapool gives you important information

2. sunder armor is totally useless (really):
While leveling threat is rarely an issue, you should prefer heroic strike at low level and cleave later to dump rage
Sometimes when pulling a group the other players will focus a mob different than you, if you lose aggro then just taunt that one, get him back in your aoe and you're good

3. War prot is a dps BEAST:
Since level 21 (2 points in improved revenge), I have always been first dmg in dungeon, often with more than 40% of the total dmg done. With such damage, as I said above, threat is almost never an issue

Multitarget skill priority:
Revenge > Thunderclap > Cleave (or heroic strike if you don't have cleave yet)

Monotarget skill priority:
Revenge > Shield Slam > Thunderclap > Heroic Strike

4. Threat Plates:
Threat Plates shows different mob nameplates if they are attacking you or not, allowing you to see much faster if you lose aggro

5. LOS:
Kronosxviii said it but it is really important so I say it again: casters are your worst ennemies!
Hide to force them to come closer

6. Pay attention to mobs level:
Dungeon finder can be tricky sometimes, look at the difference between mobs level and your and play accordingly:
3 levels above them you're almost invincible
3 levels below them you're a punching bag

7. You are the guide:
Don't hesitate to speak with your group, players are generally nice and will listen to you
For example, it can be useful to tell a dps that he is too impatient and should wait 2-3 more seconds before starting aoe :)

[OhieMitzen]

7. You are the guide:
Don't hesitate to speak with your group, players are generally nice and will listen to you
For example, it can be useful to tell a dps that he is too impatient and should wait 2-3 more seconds before starting aoe :)

Good luck.

[Shred92]

A Letter to Low Level Prot Warriors: reroll pala.

[Pirlah]

What the heck? So the warrior class in Warmane is useless?! That's quite off considering Prot war was one the best specs back in the days of retail Wrath O.o

[Whyyy12]

Imporved the low level charge macro. Works best with slofallkeypress addon

#showtooltip
/cleartarget [dead][noharm]
/startAttack
/cast [stance:1]charge
/cast [stance:1]defensive stance
/castsequence [stance:2,nocombat]battle stance ;defensive stance
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

[Parliamentarian]

Cheers for the quick rundown
Might try making a warrior.
Ive never had the patience to figure them out properly and always end up just making a pally cos healing myself and my group if i mess up is always handy.
That and being able to heal myself through the end of a bossfight in a dungeon if group die due to private server bugs and or poorly implemented mechanics.

I always go prot spec but use some of the talents/gems that are better for dps/healing. Cos i use it as an all rounder for dungeons/world pvp and don't like having to switch gear sets constantly.
Also like to flick the healer and dps some heals if they get low while im tanking cos a lot of healers don't bother healing the ranged dps and cos on icecrown no one has any patience and everyone likes to run in and pull before tanks even got to the boss.

[phrias]

I'm leveling a war prot right now (54) so I will add some details:


2. sunder armor is totally useless (really):
While leveling threat is rarely an issue, you should prefer heroic strike at low level and cleave later to dump rage
Sometimes when pulling a group the other players will focus a mob different than you, if you lose aggro then just taunt that one, get him back in your aoe and you're good

3. War prot is a dps BEAST:
Since level 21 (2 points in improved revenge), I have always been first dmg in dungeon, often with more than 40% of the total dmg done. With such damage, as I said above, threat is almost never an issue

2-You are wrong, sunder armor is not useless. Firstable it's increase the damage of all physical damage deal on target. (all mdps love it). Second increase your own damage = increase aggro. (I'll not explain how aggro work because I'm to lazy and tired). Third sunder armor have an aggro buff on it. Equal to 340+ 5% of your attack power. (as example heroic strike it's +259). To reseume the aggro gain by sunder armor it's = the damage deal by devastate * coef of sunder armor + the sunder armor so 340+ 5% of ap.

3- Yeah but no. At low lel only, never a tank can beat a mage or any dps at the end.

I'll add one other thing, as I have see pwar is still bug. I need to do some tests but don't have enought time and a partner. That mean the damage deal by pwar is not the right, same as the damage block. It's due to the block value totally broken. And I have some doubt on other things.

[starscream2413]

If everybody followed this guy, I think nobody would be playing warr tank. Thankfully, there are people with brains.