Hey guys, I’m a new warrior and want to try out protection. I have experience healing and dosing mid-level content, but have never seriously tried tank. I’ve been watching videos/reading guides on current prot, but I’m wondering if anyone has other, additional tips to share? Any specific macros to use, other important mechanics, etc. I’d appreciate any help.
Thanks guys
Okay! So here’s what I got for ya.
Don’t be afraid to use your Cooldowns.
Our mobility is our greatest asset, get comfortable charging to allies too. I recommend a mouse over macro for intercept. You can mouse over an ally name plate and get right to them.
Prot has a really adaptive talent tree. If you’re Finding fights easy you can take more damage focused talents, if you’re struggling to stay alive you can put on some more defensives.
Keep in mind prot warrior struggles the most with high magic damage, as our main mitigation is a stronger block. Focus casters down.
I’m not a pro prot player by any means, but I have been playing a while. I hope my advice helps.
Have fun! Tanking is a cool role, enjoy yourself with it.
Hey, thank you for this!
Other than what you would find in guides like on icy veins; heroic leap resets taunt and learn to love using line of sight to group casters.
Mouseover intervene is occasionally useful for when you want to use it on a friendly. I’d also recommend getting a weakaura or tellmewhen for ignore pain. It caps at 130% of base value, so there’s no point in spamming it unless you’re getting floored.
Remember that you can’t block attacks from behind. Keep your face to the enemy. If you’re moving away, strafe.
You don’t need to panic just because you’re at 30-40% health, warriors have perhaps the lowest damage taken per second of any tank in the game. Being low HP is far less dangerous for you than it is for a DK or DH.
If your health IS dropping like a rock despite the above point, shockwave and kite like hell.
Good video guides should have you covered as general advice goes, unless you have any specific questions.
In all honestly, I don’t understand stand the capping/stacking of IP yet, but I plan on looking that up more.
I appreciate the answers guy! Very helpful
Think of it like this. A cast of the skill gets you a 100% value IP. You can increase the value by recasting, but the absolute cap is 130%. So if you recast IP when you have more than 30% of the absorb still remaining, you’re wasting part of the effect.
Realistically this isn’t a common or major issue because you don’t spam IP and if you’re taking so little damage that your IPs are timing out, then just pull more stuff. But it’s still something to keep in the back of your mind.
Okay gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks!
To add on to this @Kagore, learn to use them proactively. Pop 'em if you expect to be taking lots of damage. You will a) be able to prevent more damage, and b) be less likely to freak out your healer, resulting in overlapping CDs when it may not be necessary.
Try to get as much shield block uptime as you can.
Currently in bfa you can do something like SB -> SB -> SB -> LS -> SB -> SB -> SB (SB = shield block and LS = last stand. You may get more shield block cast off before you need to last stand depending on haste). You shield block when its about to run out, which means you can use other abilities in between each shield block cast. In general I thunderclap and shield slam on CD. And either dump rage on revenge or ignore pain.
In bfa the meta is too take bolster (in most cases) as it reduces cd of LS and make LS give you shield block basically.
This may change in SL.
If your interrupts are on CD i.e Pummel, Shockwave and Storm Bolt if you talented into it, you could also use your Intimidating Shout as an emergency Interrupt.
That’s good to know, I appreciate it