A Letter to Low Level Prot Warriors & Others:
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.