So, I've been wondering...

Is there a certain way I should spec my warrior if I want to be useful to the group in instances? Right now Cilde is Arms and to be perfectly honest, she seems pretty useless. :P So. What seems to be useful in 5 man groups?

So, I've been wondering...

Is there a certain way I should spec my warrior if I want to be useful to the group in instances? Right now Cilde is Arms and to be perfectly honest, she seems pretty useless. :P So. What seems to be useful in 5 man groups?


Good question! I'm only going to be brief here, since Rinader and Widget are both more qualified to answer than I am, but here's my take on it.

Most will tell you to go protection spec. The majority of the reason for this though is because in MOST 5 man instances you never have more than 1 warrior (sometimes, sure, but not often), and in those cases that 1 warrior is typically the main tank. With that said though, my limited understanding of the warrior trees is that you really only NEED about 15 points in Prot to really get what you need. Anything beyond that are "oh shit!" abilities for the most part that let you live a little longer if things go bad, but the most important points are in those first 15 or so. There are definite advantages to putting more into Prot, especially if you're always the main tank, it just depends on the circumstances.

The reason why this is a hard question to answer is because of what happens BEYOND 5 man instances. Once you get into 10 man and 20 man instances, this becomes a whole new can of worms. In those cases you often will have more than 1 warrior, in fact you'll often have 2 or 3 or more. If ALL of the warriors are heavy in protection, then sure, they're all meat shields, but the DPS is dropped down to almost nil and we lose out on some great abilities like MS that are very useful.

Typically in those raid instances you want roughly 2 warriors who are reasonably heavy on Prot followed by whatever else seems appropriate, and the OTHER warriors should have some arms/fury abilities (likely in addition to the bare prot points) so they can be slamming some DPS onto mobs and bosses including MS, good ole Execute, etc.

Okay, stopping there, as I don't really know the warrior field near as well as Rinader, but that's my take on the role anyway :)

shut up and heal me, paladin.

shut up and heal me, paladin.


h0r!!

Form a previous post I think Rin, Brown, Widget and myself are all protect spec - with at least 31 in that tree.

So Arms/Fury or Fury/Arms would work for sure. But In the end I think VS is good for allowing what ever spec. you wish to go with.

Cheers!

PS: Healz ME you HeaLaDin

Jam is right on! You really don't need more that 15 points in the Protection tree in order to tank effectively. If you are Arms now, I would say stick with it. Find me in-game or send me a message via the forums and we can discuss some talent builds or gear. Right now, I am currently using a 31/5/15 build and having a blast running instances aswell as PvPing

Just remember, when a warrior is tanking, they must use a shield. When using a shield, your DPS will drop significantly and it might seem like your not contributing. Hell, I've had Priests outdamage me on the damage meters. :) Your worth to a group is not based on how much damage you do, but in how well you keep the mobs occupied. This will keep your group alive and your healers happy.

Right-o! The biggest deal really is in learning how to keep the mobs occupied with whatever your spec is (making sure you are using a 1H + shield). With a mostly Arms based spec, when tanking you probably would want to make certain of the following:

a) When possible you should do all the pulling, since that initial aggro always helps.
b) Sunder, Sunder, Sunder!
c) Throw down a Mortal Strike whenever possible, it generates good aggro.
d) Throw down a Revenge whenever possible, it also generates great aggro.
e) If you lose aggro, time for a Taunt!
f) If you are in a party with a hunter and they are using their pet, ask them to turn Growl off on their pet. That's a royal pain in the ass right there, if the pet is on your mob, since it'll keep throwing its own taunts and when that happens you aren't getting hit and in turn aren't generating rage.

Those 15 points that Rin mentioned in the Prot tree are really at most all you need to tank efficiently, and that's only because of the +10% to armor bonus. Even then it's debatable. Once you get the hang of exactly what all you should do (and in what order) to pull, hold, and maintain aggro on a mob so it is focused on you, any build is viable. You might take more damage with less points in prot, but if you have good armor and a good shield then it can be offset.

With Garack I decided to try something different. Main reason was we have quiet a few warriors specced in protect so right now (I am putting my last points in protect at this time) I am 31/10/10

Couple of things.

1) Mortal strike is a rage dump, not a mainstay for maintaining aggro. You'll use it only when you can't get rid of rage faster than it's building OR you are using something like Erishkander's Claw as your main weapon.

2) Toughness (5/5 = 10% additional armor) isn't one of the talents that's typically debated. It's Anticipation (5/5 = 10 additional defense). Because it doesn't scale with gear, you'll eventually have enough defense from gear where this talent is a waste. If you don't understand what role defense plays, it's basically this. Every 25 points of defense above your level maximum (300 at 60) gives you +1% to parry, block, dodge as well as reducing the chance you'll be critically hit by 1% against an equal level mob.

While you can never be immune to critical hits (even at 430 total defense you can still be critically hit at level 60 by a level 61 mob), the chance is very low at that point.

Toughness, on the other hand scales. So at 5k armor, you will have 5500. 8k armor translates to 8800. It's a very nice talent.

Defiance is another skill that will make tanking easier for you. The extra 15% generated threat at 5/5 means that you'll establish aggro much faster and hold it much easier.

EDIT TO ADD:

No matter what your spec, if you're tanking, you should be in defensive stance almost the whole time. With tactical mastery, you can stance dance out to thunder clap or overpower once you have established aggro, but until then, defensive stance is your friend. A) it reduces the damage you take by 10% (if memory serves) which makes healers happier and b) increases the threat you generate from your attacks.

Aha! Now I know. And knowing is half the battle.

I see I'll have to work on some things before I group again. Thanks for all the help, you guys!