I’m looking into some ‘hybrid’ tanking builds for classic. Basically 5/31/15 or 31/5/15 and in some builds I see 1 point in improved shield block and in some zero.
How important is this talent? It seems like for off-tanking it’s importance might not be much.
Separate question- I also understand that for full prot you only need 1 point as well. Seems you would want 3/3 unless it’s just adding to the duration but tool- tip says charges are added. Lot of full prot builds only have 1 point as well.
all tanking builds need 1 point in improved shield block; without it, you are drastically more susceptible to crushing blows
anyway, you dont need more than 19 points into prot to be a good tank
the only thing you get from going over 19 is cheaper sunders, a lower taunt cd, and a longer shield wall
deep fury is otherwise superior for tanking, mostly due to death wish(when defense isn’t that important) and flurry and improved execute; bloodthirst is probably better than shield slam for threat generation, but I haven’t done the math on that… improved intercept and piercing howl are good too
also anticipation is mostly useless; its just there so you can hit the defense cap if you’re a few points away from it and don’t want to change your gear or don’t have better gear
5 points into anticipation results in +1.6% combined avoidance; compare that to deflection
well actually you dont get tactical mastery as a deep-fury tank, so you might wanna spec deep-prot just so you can get tactical mastery, but if defense isn’t a concern, then you can just tank with 0 points into prot and take both bloodthirst and tactical mastery
that probably explains why some builds have 0 points into improved shield block
The reason is that 1 point gives Shield Block two charges. Think of Vanilla Shield Block as a personal buff that gives you a guaranteed 75% chance to block.
Bosses typically have a 2.5 second melee swing timer, so having two charges of it up per CD is enough to prevent a Crushing Blow (assuming %Miss + %Dodge + %Parry + 75% Block >= 100%).
It is basically required if tanking a skull mob.
ok thanks for the explanation!
I’m gonna assume it’s a useful talent for an off-tank then. Taking a point out of toughness maybe.
Yep, I’d recommend it for an offtank if that is a role you’ll be doing often.
Toughness and Anticipation are the two in my opinion where there is wiggle room to build around your gear and what you are doing.
If we’re getting post 1.11 Shield Slam, 31 points in Prot is better unless the fight is lasting less than 3 minutes. There was some good bit of theorycrafting recently that suggests that, if damage taken isn’t a concern, and the fight doesn’t lasts longer than 3 minutes, Death Wish builds will out threat deep prot builds.
Death Wish + Dual wielding consistently out-threats Prot, but it’s a little bit extreme unless you really overgear the content.
Fury main tanks may not be that viable in Classic because we’re probably getting buffed Shield Slam the whole way through. That way, only dual-wielding fury does significantly more threat.
Also, you should always get to 5 points in Defiance. There’s no point being a fury tank if you don’t have that.
Do you think defiance is worth taking a an off-tank only?
I would have to put 16 points in prot then for imp shield block.
If you’re in any tanking role for anything ever outside of dungeons, you want 5 points in Defiance. It is the single most important talent.
oh right, defiance; duh
thx for the info
For Fury off-tank, I would recommend 3/32/16.
Three points in Improved Heroic strike, the extra point in Fury being 5/5 Dual-wielding for when you’re not tanking your mob as opposed to 4/5.
If your gear is very bad, I would throw some points into Anticipation.
My goto for leveling is 31/5/15. It lets me PVP as needed and tank when I want to including farming up pre-Raid BiS when it is time for that.
classic . wowhead . com/talent-calc/warrior/BSczf9AEATADzkUk
For raiding I will re-spec to 17/3/31 which works for most of Vanilla as a top Effective Health (Armor & Health) and Threat Per Second build. As I said earlier you’ll put points in either Toughness or Anticipation depending on how close you are to 440 defense.
classic . wowhead . com/talent-calc/warrior/BI8gDMABJAXPF6wE0A
Fury/Prot is very good, but I think it is an advanced build for advanced players and isn’t required until your DPS are threat capped and your healers can handle a tank that is not super ‘tanky’.
Your raid is okay with you taking Deep Wounds? I remember people not being cool with that until BC because of debuff slots.
Yeah it’s a good question, limited slots and all. Basically yes though because the threat generated from Impale is worth it. I have to admit I don’t recall if it is overwritten by another debuff or not.
That’s what I’m concerned about. Wouldn’t it be a case of “a more powerfull spell is already active,” and your Fury Warrior’s Deep Wounds with higher weapon damage would overwrite it?
The benefit is really just to get Impale which is a big threat gain when you crit with any ability. The debuff of Deep Wounds itself I don’t consider important to the TPS of the build, it’s just required as a pre-req to get Impale.
Make sense?
Yeah. It was a big part of the TBC/WotLK threat build, which might be what I’m thinking of. I will probably be rolling with this to start, because I’m concerned about that debuff slot.
classic .wowhead .com/talent-calc/warrior/AvCAATAF_xTzE0A
Looks solid, should take you far into Vanilla raid content without issue.
Any thoughts on what race and weapons you are going for?
Tauren for HP for Naxx, specifically Patchwerk/Four Horsemen. Troll could maybe pull more TPS, but it takes up a GCD and that seems like a pain if I’m not going to CD stack.
Pre-raid, I’ve been looking at this boy: classicdb .ch/?item=13204
I honestly don’t remember it on live, probably because no one farmed LBRS that much. But that armor pen sounds stupid good for raid DPS.
Quel’serrar as soon as available. Should be the best in the game unless you get Thunderfury. Maladath is also an option, but I’m not too hot on Maladath because of the 2.2 speed. That’s a lot less Heroic Strikes, especially factoring in Windfury. If I were Alliance, Maladath would be much more attractive.
Tauren too. I like that weapon, honestly don’t even remember it. Proc could be really fun.
I had one binding in my inventory forever, we just never saw the right one. It would be amazing to actually complete a Thunderfury. If that falls through I am going for the unpronounceable ’ Crul’shorukh, Edge of Chaos’ from Nefarian.
classicdb . ch/?item=19363
Your Orc Fury DPS are going to riot if you take their Crul’Shurokh.