Hello,
I am still learning the ropes of a warrior as a tank. I used to be a DK tank (and loved DK tanks, don’t hate lol)
Anyways, I was in a group for SM and one other warrior started ranting I shouldn’t spec into the protection tree until 60 and im like, well I am used to the talents and my dungeon rotation is now around those talents picked, plus I use a shield too and it makes it easier on the healer too.
I know some tanks spec into Arms, I believe and tank without a shield etc… if it works for them and the team composition is good and it’s not harsh on the healer then good.
In saying that, some truth to what he said?
You can tank just fine in arms spec. If you plan to dungeon grind all the way to 60, then going prot isn’t a bad idea
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Yes! Haha gonna die a lot more until you hit 51+. If you’re planning to dungeon spam to 60 you’re fine, just go with a offensive tank build half fury half prot:).
Yes. You’re only really hurting yourself. Your desire to tank is laudable, but ultimately, you’re slowing your own progression.
You’re making it much slower to level outside of dungeon content, and providing minimal if any gains to your ability to tank at such a low level.
If you like it, then you like it, and kudos to you–but there really isn’t a point in speccing full prot Pre-60.
One of the bigger problems is that the prot tree is a mess, and tanking in vanilla in general relies heavily on Arms investment anyway.
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Prot tanks are my best friends in dungeon runs.
I love them. They save me mana so I can anxiously flash heal and renew the life-tapping warlock because I have a primal need to see all green bars full.
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Typically it is better to level as arms even as a tank. Compared to retail you can infact still tank competently as a a warrior speced into Arms. The issue with prot is that it’s missing certain talents that Arms has (i.e: tactical mastery, anger management) that makes stance dancing for tanking a lot easier.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t be tanking as full prot until 60. It’s just typcailly better to level arms even as a tank. You can still equip your shield and 1h if that makes you feel more comfortable as arms. But again this is classic and your monthly sub; play how you want bro.
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If you dungeon grind, its great. (i am doing this)
if you quest, its a pita and i wouldnt recommend. The next expac will be out before you down hogger.
Spec doesn’t mean you can’t use a shield and one hander. The only benefit to Prot Spec early level is… uh…
Well, not much sadly. The armor bonus is negliable. The threat bonus is quite nice though if get that talent. No one takes the defense talent since useless at 60 and below. And the extra charge on shield block comes in handy.
What you lose until later is stance dancing if spec straight into prot, slower questing with minimal survival gain.
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I spent 11 points in arms for anger management, and rest into prot. I have an awesome fun and i dont feel gimped when lvling. I do use 2hand or DW when questing.
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That guy is a clown and has no idea what he’s talking about. You should have asked him why he thinks that way - I’d bet money he wouldn’t have a legitimate reason besides the generic “Oh I heard xyz about prot”
Reality is this: yes, prot sucks real bad for solo play and leveling but gets better the higher level you get, starting around the ZF level. It is great however if you’re playing in a group setting.
That guy has no idea how you play, probably has never tanked or played prot ever, and probably thinks his spec is the only way to play. Ignore him and do your thing.
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I could be minority here. But my second char in vanilla was a warrior and I leveled mostly sword and board just because I thought it looked sick. Really enjoyed it. I switched to arms around 50ish because my rogue had a lot of arcanite bars and I knew I could get an arcanite reaper quickly. Imagine my warrior in pre60 bgs with an arcanite reaper. It was orgasmic.
There’s nothing wrong with leveling as prot so long as you’re enjoying yourself.
You will be a better tank for it too.
It’s not bad. If you’re comfortable and enjoy your spec, playstyle, and you’re doing content well enough that you and your group(s) have little to no issues I see no reason you shouldn’t be protection. I rerolled because I wanted a different look and prefer leveling as protection specc.
As you know, you have more than one talent tree available to you, so specc’ing completely into one tree isn’t particularly a thing. However, a lot of people spec into something like a 31/20/0 build while leveling, as that’s the build on some popular sites, and it works fine.
There is a lot of talk about tanking with or without a shield, but a lot of it ignores stances, and talents. E.g. would you have better damage mitigation and threat generation in Battle Stance with a Shield and 1hander equipped vs in Defensive Stance with a 2hander equipped?
And, I don’t know of many tanks (there was one who seemed to suggest it in a rather popular forum post) who would advocate for staying in once stance the entirety of a dungeon. It doesn’t seem like a very warrior thing to do, in general, regardless of the role being played, as you will want to use skills that are only available in certain stances under different situations.
He said that you “shouldn’t spec into the protection tree until 60,” right?
I suppose it would depend on what is meant by shouldn’t, and how that may be affecting you. Are you leveling solely in instances? Are you having issues with rage generation? Are things going well for you?
I could imagine not having very much fun soloing quests in prot spec, but if you are enjoying your experience and are mostly/solely tanking instances, then why not?
Probably not though, because you won’t learn how to stance dance without tactical mastery.
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people are overly concerned with playing this game “the right way” and min-maxing everything. If you’re having fun and your build isn’t making your groups wipe, you’re doing fine.
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You can level prot and still put points in other trees.
You can also switch stances for reasons w/o having those skill points.
You don’t need tactical mastery for stance dancing. In fact, it’s not even a common talent for tanks to pick up. Dump your rage before swapping stances.
As mentioned about some talents and moves…
Early on, if you go prot, you are taking lots of defensive stuff. Does it help when getting beat on compared to arms, etc? Yes. But…low levels the trade off is…you lack rage. You lack rage you lack moves. You lack moves, you lack threat. You lack threat…are you even tanking at this point? You also can gain rage from being hit, along with low moves, low rage generation…taking even lower damage means even lower rage generation.
Plus if you go out in the world and try to level early as prot…SSSSLLLLLOOOOWWWWW
And with all these speedy AOE’rs…they are not waiting 5 mins per pull for you to gain threat admittedly.
There will always be the most optimal ways to play the game. You don’t HAVE to do so. I sure didn’t, and I’m having a blast.
Yes, my progress is slower. But seriously, why is everyone bumrushing to the finish? We finally have the game that respects our time and effort and gives us meaningful gameplay from level 1 all the way to 60. Why would I want to blow through those levels?
With that being said, if you want ADVICE, I would say dip 11 into arms for stance dancing, and then do whatever you want until that point. A warrior is at their best when they can change stances and react to situations without gutting their rage.