[Onyxia] Warrior tanking questions.

[BigBoiJebac]

So I am fresh 60 and about to start doing dungeons and quests to collect some pre-raid gear. I was wondering which spec I should play. As far as my research showed, I can go Arms, Deep Prot, and Fury Prot. Which one should I choose for dungeon tanking and should I go deep prot or fury prot for raid tanking? Also, should I tank with a two-hander or a one-hander and a shield?

[Stavri]

Not playing Onyxia currently, but back in P1 of Classic, I found the best dungeon tanking to be done in standard fury spec, with 5/5 Tactical Mastery. Having any kind of AOE damage is great for tanking trash, so you can charge in, swap to zerker -> WW, and then switch to Defensive Stance and tab sunder the mobs. Equip shield if you start to get low and essentially continue this and fit in Bloodthirst if you have the global/rage for it. Dual wielding is better for rage generation and you can essentially just swap some gear with +defense to tank. Fury Prot is better for raids, and arms is meh for tanking. If you have engineering, make sure to use dynamite/grenades. Dragon Breath Chili is also a decent item for AOE threat.

[Secularist]

Fury-prot needs to be laid aside from BRD onward.

Your defense stat is nowhere near a real tank's, so you're eating more crits.

A warrior or pally tank's greatest source of mitigation, especially early, is block from a shield. You're not wearing one.

So in sum, you're choosing between a spec that takes much more damage, much more often vs. a correct traditional spec well suited for the tanking role. I'm wondering why this is even really a choice.

Fury-prot trades the utility of an actual tank for a marginal increase to group dps in 5 mans at the cost of group survivability and it is EXTREMELY stressful on healers. Moreover, there are some bosses in 5 mans that just crush all but epicly geared fury-prots.

Anyone having good success on Onyxia as a fury-prot needs to thank the well-geared healers that carried them.

Cheers

From a recent asking of the same question.