Warriors in Wrath - Mitigation

On the surface it seems like warriors are getting the raw end of the deal for Wrath of the Litch King. After the initial excitement about Titan’s Grip and Heroic Leap calmed down and people had an opportunity to try it out revealing that neither was all it looked to be. Titan’s Grip by many accounts yielding lower over all DPS than dual wielding one handed weapons and being prone to period of rage starvation. “But that’s all DPS stuff” I hear you saying “you’re a tank get to the relevant parts”. This is where my mixed feelings kick in. Previously warriors have had it good as tanks, we had the easiest road to becoming uncrushable. Well with crushing blows removed that era is over.


To be completely honest despite Ironarm’s best efforts I constantly look at the Druid and Paladin tanks with envy. Paladins almost seem to be able to tank whole instances at once while AFKing to make a coffee. Druids have dodge, amour and health so high they can switch to caster and battle res mid boss fight and on top of that when not tanking they rip things to pieces in kitty form. So sure I have spent hours looking through warrior information from the Wrath beta and I’m still confused but I don’t mind because it seems like Warriors, although not being given massive buffs on the protection side, have been shaken up some what.

But enough of the whining lets have a look at some talents. The most interesting things so far is the talents that lead to rage generation from mitigation. Shield Specialisation now gives 2 rage on a successful block and Stalwart Protector gives you 2 rage when your dodge or parry. Using the rage formula on Wowwiki a hit for 500 damage generates around 5 rage, considering in my current state I have a combined dodge/block/parry around 65%, across 20 hits I will generate about 41 rage (6 blocked hits yielding 6 rage, 7 dodge/parried hits yielding 0 rage and 7 connecting hits yielding 35 rage). Assuming I take these two talents in WotLK and keep the same gear I will generate 61 rage(13 blocked/dodged/parried hits yielding 26 rage and 7 connecting hits yielding 35 rage). Across 20 hits that is an addition 20 rage to play with. This does however neglect the damage and thus rage generation from a blocked hit or anger management but it is still a massive increase.

What does all this mean for a warrior? Well to start with more rage means we can use more abilities, but most importantly it means if you dodge/block/parry 13 attacks in a row you won’t be left with next to no rage and loose agro.

I have also heard a rumor (which I have been unable to confirm) that the formula to convert strength to block value has been significantly improved. This will not only mean larger shield slams and more absorbed with a block but with an emphasis on strength on tanking gear equals an over all increase in attack power and thus damage improvement. I will be on the look out for more on this front including some hard evidence if I can find it.

So despite Titan’s Grip not being all that was expected from it and paladins and druids being the envy of my world I think warrior tanks will be okay in WotLK. Even if only because all the Paladins will switch to retribution, Druids to restoration and well good luck getting a Death Knight to tank.