Warriors in 3.1.0 - PvP and Stances

You may have noticed my post a little while back about protection warriors in PvP. Well it appears we (by we I refer to all warriors not just tanks) are due for a buff in the next patch, a buff mostly aimed for PvP so all you Death Knights better watch out.Apparently all our stances will “suck less” with the penalties being reduced and a armour penetration effect added to Battle Stance. Currently of the three warrior stances one (Battle) is essentially a lack of stance with no bonus or penalty and the other two offer a bonus that comes with a penalty. So Berserker Stance gives you additional critical strike rating but increases the amount of damage you take and Defence Stance reduces the amount of damage you take but also reduces the amount you deal. The latest build is set to give Battle Stance an increase in armour penetration and halve the penalty of both Berserker and Defensive Stances.
Although these changes are squarely aimed at PvP where a warrior in Berserker Stance is easy prey with a nice big damage boost against them the changes to Defensive Stance will be fantastic for the tanks out there who will effectively deal an additional 5% damage.

We will also be getting a new ability; Shattering Throw deals damage, reduces armour and removes an invulnerability effect. It will have a 5 minute cool down, cost 25 rage and but will only be usable in battle stance. This will be a big deal for PvP warriors who will be one of only two classes who can offer some beat down to an ice blocked Mage or shielded Paladin. However It’s PvE effects will be somewhat limited as I highly doubt any raid bosses will be susceptible to this.

Last but not least there will be reductions to the cool downs on Last Stand and Intimidating Shout.

As a final note, I can be beaten by Death Knights.

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Patch 3.0.8 for Protection Warriors

For the last few weeks a new patch 3.0.8 has been on the Public Test Realms, this patch includes a couple of notable (positive) points for Protection warriors.

Targets will now agro on the use of any spell/ability, this change seems aimed at Warlock and Priest damage over time spells which can take a moment to actually damage a mob, during this time it can be stolen by another player. However it also means we can now “tap” targets with Taunt and Demoralizing Shout which will make gathering up groups of mobs a bit easier in a competitive environment.

Two new enchants are to be added which fill some enchanting gaps for tanking classes. Enchant Weapon - Titanguard will add 75 stamina to a weapon and will be the best tanking enchant available. The second is Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina which adds 40 stamina to your bracers, this supplements the existing bracer enchants which add 15 expertise or 12 defense (Burning Crusade enchant that you might you if your desperate for defense).

An increase to the range of Taunt, from 20 yards to 30 yards, is the only ability change for Protection Warriors. This will be useful for a few fights where you are required to pick up lots of spread out mobs and in picking up mobs which have appeared from behind your party.

Presently there is no indication of when this patch will go live but considering it has been on the PTR for a while now it shouldn’t be too long.

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Shield Block

Reading a Wow Insider article the other day I noticed something quite interesting about the warrior ability shield block. Improved shield block used to increase our block chance by 75% for two attacks. With the removal of crushing blows and thus the need for crushing blow mitigation this was changed to increase out block chance and value by 100% for 10 seconds with a 60 second cool down. Initially I didn’t understand this change and perhaps others missed it too. This means that for 10 seconds every minute (talented down to 40 seconds) you are blocking every attack and your block value is doubled.

Now I have a block value of around 800 depending on which gear I am in so for a quarter of the time I can be reducing incoming melee attacks by about 1600 plus a 30% chance to double that again. In addition attackers will be hit for between 250 and 500 damage thanks to Damage Shield. Viewed from a damage/AE tanking perspective, if we add Thunder Clap, Thorns and Retribution Aura (do they still stack?) mobs should be sticking to us like we well... glue.

For you amusing reference please see the above image as to how useful this ability if to clearing whole instances with one pull. Here you can see everything in Wailing Caverns that didn't die on the way to the last room. And that is only the tip of the iceberg, thanks to changes such as these I can be second on damage charts in heroics, out DPS arms warriors in arena and well kill stuff. Sure I am not perfect and some times I get a bit big for my boots. For example pulling 3 shadows of doom as well as 5 or 6 non elites while your team mates are fighting off horde warlocks is a close call. Also 6 heroic elites is my maximum so far with the 7th (a Cobalt Serpent) wiping the group.

Playing a protection warrior really has got a lot more fun. You really feel like you are involved while tanking and you are no longer an easy target in PvP. A lot has changes recently and personally I am loving it.

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Class Discussion

The class discussion, conducted by Greg Street (Ghost Crawler) and Tom Chilton, for the World of Warcraft started with Death Knights. Some explanation about where the class has evolved from and touching upon runes and runic power. The starting zone for Death Knights will be a zone worth playing through just for the experience, even if you don't want to level all the way to 80. Something that was very interesting is that the talent trees are less task specific. Apparently you can use any tree for either DPS or tanking.

Greg then started to go through some changes to the classes. There were some excellent explanations about how and why they had made certain changes; i'm not going to detail everything as there was a lot of information. He touched upon shadow priest DPS, discipline healing ability in raids and the removal of racial talents for priests. Mind sear is apparently a popular new ability among Blizzard staff. Moonkin were covered, discussing mana and crowd control and DPS issues. This brought a smile to Alassiel's face. There was a huge reaction to Paladins by the audience; in fact they got their own slide in the presentation.


Warriors have been the main tank for a long time, they wanted to make sure that warriors were still desired, but not the exclusive tank, after the removal of crushing blows. They also wanted to make sure that there were “fun things” to take in the protection tree in addition to the mitigation abilities. A desire was expressed by the designed to maintain a very clear difference between the different tanking classes while ensuring they all have the tools they need.

In terms of groups, flexibility was addressed. Ensuring that more different class/talents were viable in raids, focusing on the idea that you were bringing the player not the class. They didn't want the game to be about buffs and potions but gear and skill. Player skill will be the most important reason to chose someone for a group. The implementation of spell power will make life easier for healers when soloing. The same goes for threat generation based more on damage, for tanks, as opposed to high threat abilities.

Yes, they are working on a dual spec system. They want you do be able to swap talent spec mid raid but they don't seem to have too many details yet. Obviously not a system where you can swap from arms to prot and back again I the middle of an arena battle but they don't want you to have to head into town every time you need to swap. On top of that they want to improve the UI to support different gear sets. Implementing something like outfitter or item rack where switching gear sets easily while still keeping these sets in your bags.

Mages, rogues and warlocks were the source of the most questions. Lots of points were mentioned, I started tuneing out sorry, making mages do more DPS isn't at the top of my priority list. Sadly no questions were asked about warriors or priests.

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Protection Warrior Talents in Wrath

when the happened before Burning Crusade I was caught by surprise (I was a noob back then) and wasted this great opportunity. I do not plan to let this happen again so I have been working on some nice talent specs for Ironarm (and to a lesser extent Squiggle). Now that I am reasonably confident no massive changes are on the way to the protection warrior talents I going to outline my choices so far.

I have looked at two specs, one to go with at level 70 and one to aim for at level 80. These specs are based on many assumptions, mostly I am assuming that with an increase in the damage output of protection warriors that generating rage will be less of an issue. In addition I do intend to take the Glyph of Heroic Strike which will also help with rage generation.

These talent specs are also based on the assumption that I will be running a lot of high level dungeons and raids. I have had to balance the need for AOE tanking and utility that is great in dungeons with the survivability and single target threat generation of raiding. I also do not intend to PvP with these builds even though it would be fun to try.

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Holy cow I just saw this on Wow Insider!

After my small hissy fit earlier this week it seems like Blizzard are buffing warriors in Wrath to their rightful(read overpowered) state.

• Heroic leap has moved from Tier 11 to Tier 9
• Titan's Grip has been shifted to the bottom (Tier 11) of the fury tree
• Titan’s Grip will only have one rank and doesn’t have a speed penalty
• Shield Mastery (in the protection tree) will increases block value by up to 30% instead of increasing the amount blocked by 30%
• Furious Attack, has been added to the fury tree. This two point talent will have a 50%/100% chance to reduce healing done to the target by 25% for 8 seconds. It will stack up to two times

So warriors will get access to Heroic Leap at level 50, will have a passive mortal strike debuff and dual wielding two handers has never looked better. At this rate it will be hard to stop me from swapping to fury, I better start looking for a couple of nice two handed weapons to get me started. The shield mastery changes which on the surface look pretty ordinary are actually quite impressive, 30% more block translates to shield slams that hit 30% harder!

I saw this at the Wow Insider Page here.

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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.

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Entry Level Tanking Gear

I have chatted to a few people in Children of Stormwind about getting starter tanking gear. Most people know they need to get 490 defense etc but are not sure where to go for good gear upgrades. Therefore I have created a post which gives you some examples of easily obtainable tanking gear. You will need to mix and match carefully to ensure you are uncritable and uncrushable while trying to maintain a high level of armor. As this blog is powered by wowhead you should be able to mouse over linked items to get details, if you want more information click the item and you will be taken to the wowhead site which gives excellent detail about where and how to get the item.

Head
Felsteel Helm - Crafted by a blacksmith
Myrmidon's Headdress - reward from the quest The Warlord's Hideout

Neck
Mark of the Ravenguard - Reward from the quest Brother Against Brother

Shoulders
Shoulder Guards of the Bold - Drops in Shadow Labyrinth off Murmur
Warchief's Mantle - Reward from the quest Return to Andormu

Back
Cloak of Eternity - Crafter by a Tailor

Chest
Breastplate of the Warbringer - Reward from the quest Forge Camp: Annihilated
Jade-Skull Breastplate - Drops in The Mechanar from Nethermancer Sepethrea
Vindicator's Hauberk - Purchased from Quartermaster Endarin when revered with The Aldor

Wrist
Sha'tari Wrought Armguards - Reward from the quest The Soul Devices

Hands
Thatia's Self-Correcting Gauntlets - Drops in The Arcatraz from Dalliah the Doomsayer
Felsteel Gloves - Crafted by a blacksmith

Waist
Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard - Reward from the quest How to Break Into the Arcatraz

Legs
Timewarden's Leggings - Purchased from Alurmi when reverd with The Keepers of Time
Felsteel Leggings - Crafted by a balcksmith

Boots
Sha'tari Wrought Greaves - Reward from the quest Into the Heart of the Labyrinth

Rings
Andormu's Tear - Reward from the quest Hero of the Brood
Iron Band of the Unbreakable - Drops in Old Hillsbrad Foothills from Lieutenant Drake

Trinkets
Adamantine Figurine - Drops in Drops in Shadow Labyrinth off Blackheart the Inciter
Regal Protectorate - Reward from the quest Overlord
Darkmoon Card: Vengeance - Reward from the quest Darkmoon Furies Deck (Note this is an expensive quest to complete)

Weapons
Honor's Call - Purchase from Logistics Officer Ulrike when exalted with Honor Hold
Grom'tor's Charge - Quest reward from The Cipher of Damnation
Crystalline Kopesh - Quest reward from Wanted: Durn the Hungerer

Shields
Dawnforged Defender - Purchase from Eldara Dawnrunner when exalted with The Shattered Sun Offensive
Netherwing Protector's Shield - Reward from the quest Ally of the Netherwing
Merciless Gladiator's Shield Wall - Purchasable for Arena points but in the future will be available for honor
Platinum Shield of the Valorous - Drops in Shadow Labyrinth off Ambassador Hellmaw

Ranged Weapons
Melmorta's Twilight Longbow - Drops in The Black Morass from Chrono Lord Deja
Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer - Crafted by an engineer

Some Less Known of Enchants
Nethercleft Leg Armor(crafted) - Legs
Greater Inscription of Warding(Aldor Reputation)/Greater Inscription of the Knight(Scryer Reputation) - Shoulder
Glyph of the Defender(Keepers of Time Reputation) - Head

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Why did I choose that class

When I first chose a warrior I didn't know what tanking was, I had no idea about PvP or for that matter very much at all about warriors. But I choose a warrior for a couple of reasons, firstly I didn't want to be the same class as my friends who has just stared (Rogue, Warlock and Paladin) not that I had a clue about group composition I just wanted to be different. Also in previous RPG games I had played Ranger type characters but they always seemed so fragile. I had watched my friend with the warlock play and it seemed like a cop out standing back there like a wimp while a demon did all the hard bits. So I figured why not play the character that wears the thickest armor and beats the crap out of things. Now if you are ever going to be a warrior you have to be a Dwarf, I mean dwarfs are tough, they are like chunks of rock with arms and pointy weapons. The funny thing is I tend to play in PvP like that, run at stuff flailing and hope i hit things.

Squiggle was my second character, I rolled him to I could level with Alassiel. My intention was to create a character for PvP as I didn't want to respec Ironarm all the time in order to PvP. At this point most people wonder why I choose a Priest for PvP as opposed to a Paladin, Druid, Warlock or rogue. I mean generally if you want to heal a Paladin or druid would be considered better and a warlock or rogue is generally easier if you just want to do damage. Well to be honest it was a bit or the "I don't want to be like everyone else" syndrome (ironic considering 10 million play this game and at least a good few hundred thousand would play shadow priests). In addition I wanted to roll a Draenei and that limited my choices some what. Thus Squiggle was born, now all I have to do is learn how to melt faces like a pro.

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