"Arms > Prot for tanking while leveling"

[Frosto-faerlina]

@Elastrator-pagle

whew damn this post is long

It is! I’m still in the process of reading it, but I think that a couple of things to note with regards to whether the Arms tree or Prot tree are better investments for tanking while leveling:

First is that charge is fun, and a good way to generate some initial rage on a pull. Having Tactical Mastery and Anger Management to keep some range when stance dancing after a charge can be convenient.

Second is that Sweeping Strikes is very helpful for initial threat on an AoE trash pack. Charge → Sweeping Strikes → Whirlwind is one of the highest (if not the highest) AoE threat openers.

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@Elastrator-pagle

A prot spec warrior has defiance, which ups all threat by 15%. Applying this bonus to revenge (30 rage for 6 within 30 seconds:62350.15 = 211) and your auto attacks (say 60dps: 60300.15 = 270) gives you a total of 490 “free” threat within that same 30 seconds, closing the arms-prot gap to 400 (890-490). Prot also has Improved Sunder Armor, lowering the cost of SA to 12: if you generate 90 rage within those 30 seconds and spend the remaining 60 on SA (4180 for 720 threat normally, 5180*1.15 for 1035 with prot talents) you’d get 315 free threat. These two prot talents alone would net you 832 “free” threat under these circumstances.

It would maybe be more interesting to look at this across 3 or 5 mobs, rather than 2.

Also, to note Defiance increases the threat generated by your attacks while in defensive stance.

@Elastrator-pagle

Oh wow, SS stacks with whirlwind to hit 8 targets?

Yeah, Sweeping Strikes is pretty amazing. Still reading through your post, but it might be worth mentioning Magey’s work on Github: https://github.com/magey/classic-warrior/wiki/Threat-Mechanics

And also, Elite’s Classic Warrior Instance Tanking Guide

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You seem to be comparing “Arms Warrior” to “Prot Warrior,” but personally I don’t like these terms, and don’t think they really apply to Classic. All warriors have access to 3 talent trees, and other than skills that are talented only, to all warrior skills.

If your build is deep Arms, you can still equip a shield, and use Shield Block, and indeed in some situations, you really should. You can also equip a fast 1 hander, and tab target to get some white hits and/or sunders to maintain threat across multiple mobs.