Tsmith's Warrior Guide - Tank (Talents and Tips)

First off I want to say thank you for all the people who have left comments, after the big update (3.2.0) I went back to update this guide and started freaking out, I made this guide after the release of patch 3.0 but before you could buy Lich King and level up to 80. I have done a lot more tanking since then and this guide was still good but could be a lot better. So I touched up the guide in several areas.

The talent build has been completely redone, the glyphs are still the same, Draenei has been taken off the list of best races because you will have a healer, the reasoning for picking Tauren and Human has been changed to involve tanking more, the reason for a good shield has been changed to make more sense, falling behind while leveling has been redone, the gear choices have been changed, the enchants have been changed, what gems you want has been added, it is now clear when a talent is in the wrong tree.

I hope you all get good use out of this update and have fun tanking in the new instance, Trial Of The Champion.

Just wondering, what's the benefit of levelling prot over arms or fury? (Levelling a warrior for the first time)

Thanks

but I love it.
I did a few changes in the Talent build to suit my likings more, because I want/aim to do some istances to level 80. And need some abilities like Vigilance earlier. I'm at level 32 with Hoofman at the moment, and equipped a heirloom sword so I don't have to change weapon every other level. Shields are most often gotten from Questrewards... or bought from AH if they lag behind. Warrior questchain at 30 gives decent armor that will probably last to plate level 40.
Glyphs are a pain at early levels, so I took Revenge glyph for instance... Couldn't get any better at the time. So please put up alterenated Glyph suggestions while levelling since some are to high level.

Yours...

"Shang"

I leveled my warrior as protection from 70-80. In fact, I did it from 58-80 if you really want to get technical. I find a great many of the suggestions here to be less than efficient.

Leveling isn't really about instancing. Sure, the Northrend instances are great and I would suggest doing them on the way, but you don't need to worry about things like Safeguard (I haven't even spec'd into that at all even at 80). While leveling, spec for max damage. Point for point, puncture is one of our worst talents now, where before 3.0 it was mandatory. Devastate is one of our least used abilities now; I only use it to get Sword and Board to proc. With the glyph you'll get a full 5-stack after only 3 Devastates.

Your glyph and talent choices show a tendency to taunt. A lot. I don't know if you are just running with bad people or what, but I can't recall a time that I've needed that much taunt capability. I would heartily recommend the glyph of Revenge over Barbaric Insults. And glyph of blocking is pretty much required gear for any prot warrior. 10% more block value = more shield slam damage in addition to less damage taken. For minors I would recommend the glyph of bloodrage over the glyph of battle.

Just my 2 cents.

I just wanted to ask about several things..

Why would you get Safeguard for leveling? I can't see why, truthfully, even at level cap you would. To me, it seems like a waste of two talent points, seeing as the recent Intervene change reduced the target's threat on all current mobs in combat by 10%.

Your comment on Shield Mastery is incorrect; you mention about more blocks, but in fact it makes you block for more, not more often. Nor do you mention the buff to your nice little spell for saving your butt, Shield Block.

At a low level, I wouldn't recommend specializing into Puncture because of the fact that until level 50, you don't do any damage while applying sunders. I'm not sure whether it's more or less damage, but in my opinion, it would make it slower killing, if not just slightly.

Other than that, I would like to mention that a good minor glyph would be Glyph of Bloodrage, which would go well with you saying to spec into Imp. Bloodrage.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of my points, though.

That's all I found, so far. Great guide, hopefully it will be even better!

Edit : I removed a part where i misread what you said,

My first thought looking over this guide was a simple question.

Why?

Why level as protection? I have been a prot warrior as my main spec for all of TBC, and I love being an immovable object. It's a great feeling to know that you have 3 healers who's only concern is keeping you alive, and to know that the fate of the raid is in your hands, moreso than anyone else in the raid. But am I levelling as prot? Hell no. Why? Because Titan's Grip is down to -5% miss, and dealing 25k damage spread over 5 targets with one whirlwind is just too much to miss. Fury warriors have limited ability to heal themselves, although they do take a lot more damage than a protection warrior.. but things die faster, and at the end of the day, that's important to me: fast kills = fast quests = fast exp.

The one saving grace for levelling with a prot warrior is AoE, something that you didn't mention in the guide at all. Right now, my warrior can pull 10-15 talbuks by thunderclapping and running, then AoE them down with thunderclap and shockwave. It's a very fast way to farm hit food, I wager it is as fast as any other AoE class out there, and I suspect it's better. The best part is I can do it without eating or bandaging.

The second reason I can think of is the 70-80 5-man instances. Tanks are difficult to find in the 70-80 push, and with quest areas packed, many people will be instancing their way up. Personally I intend to stick my tanking gear on and rely on the various improvements blizzard made to offspec tanking, like giving everyone shield slam, making the +15% talent a passive ability in defensive stance for all warriors, etc. I don't see any need to be prot to instance when you lose so many of the fury benefits when you're alone.

And finally.. if I WAS going to spec prot.. I wouldn't do it this way. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LVZhbZVItrx0zidczsGo is the build I am using at the moment, it's a tanking guide and assumes plenty of rage. When soloing, if I use a revenge and a heroic strike glyph, I can essentially hold onto enough rage for revenge, shield slam, a devastate or two and a heroic strike every 5 seconds, which isn't incredible dps by any stretch. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=LV0hZhxZVItrgbzidczsGo is close to what I'll be testing first at 80, I may adjust later on, probably removing imp. disarm since endgame bosses are immune and so on.

Still, each to their own.

I also find that dwarfs make a good warrior due to the fact that stoneskin can make the difference between life and death and a good fight against a rouge. It negates all poisons and slowing effects that they place. I just wait for them to stack the slowing ability and poisons for the first couple attacks then pop it and whalla, im good as new with a rogue that no longer has a speedy advantage.

Great guide, dutchback. Although I found something wrong with it. Tanking in PvP gear (having a warrior myself), I've found that it does not work too well. Most 5 mans will laugh at you for tanking in PvP gear. Although it does give a lot of stamina/strength/resilience, it lacks defense or block which is not a good idea. Great guide, even though!

-Kostada

Very useful guide!

I'll be linking this to my friend who just hit 70 on his Warrior and wants to level through WotLK as a tank.

Your discussion of talents is very in depth, perhaps you could add what kinds of spell rotation are best for a Prot Warrior going solo?

I love the pictures .