Plz help: Low lvl warrior tanking spec

[Akkox-myzrael]

Hi, thanks for jumping in here to help. Im leveling rn in sync with a friend group, consisting of myself on this warrior, a Ret Paladin, and a Resto Shaman. We are going to be doing as many dungeons together as possible along the way.

Im currently full Arms, i have BiS 1h/shield for this level, but now that im coming to the SM dungeons im wondering if its beneficial to swap specs?

Arms has the lower rage cost on Thunderclap and Anger Management for Rage gen, but Fury has increased shout range, sweeping strikes, and some more dmg. Prot is obviously the tanking spec, but im unsure if its as good at level 33… ive heard mixed things.

Any advice woukd be appreciated. The goal is to take my BiS sword/shield into SM Dungeons and kick butt and be an awesome tanking beast. Thank you!!!

[Tracyn-benediction]

dont level as tank…

just go arms or fury
pop def stance slap a sheild and tell people to attack your target
agroo is more important than goin full defensive at low levels

[Akkox-myzrael]

Awesome! I am currently Arms. Better to just stay Arms then? Or swap to Fury?

[Kurathis-pagle]

@Akkox-myzrael

Arms has the lower rage cost on Thunderclap

This is huge - in addition to the increased damage of Thunder Clap, as well.

@Akkox-myzrael

Anger Management for Rage gen

I wouldn’t worry too much about this one if you’ll be tanking some dungeons. It’ll take a substantial amount of time to benefit from this.

@Akkox-myzrael

Fury has increased shout range

Ehhh, you want to be careful with shouts - just like anything in WoW. The further they travel, the higher the chance you’ll aggro additional enemies.

@Akkox-myzrael

sweeping strikes

Due to the high rage cost, you may not find yourself having it active as much as you would like to.

@Akkox-myzrael

Prot is obviously the tanking spec, but im unsure if its as good at level 33… ive heard mixed things.

At level 33, you wouldn’t be full Protection anyway. You’d typically want to fill out “Deflection” and “Improved Thunder Clap” and then go down the Protection tree. Realistically speaking, until level 60, you won’t be missing much in the Protection tree with the exception of Defiance, granting you additional threat generation.

Here is how I would select my talents going into the Protection tree (I can’t post links, so you just need to take out the extra ‘h’ in the beginning)

hhttps://www.warcrafttavern.com/tbc/tools/talent-calculator/warrior?t=A11111666-C0011155555bbb98c

[Kurathis-pagle]

At your level, it’s more about situational awareness than it is about talents and gear.

I would recommend sticking with what you are familiar with and get used to tab-targeting. Have Mocking Blow and Taunt on your bars and have good reaction time. You’ll rock it!

[Valkryn-mankrik]

If you have engineering you can use bombs to help with aoe aggro too

[Dreamsphere-westfall]

If you want to level as tank, wait til WOTLK prepatch. Warrior prot spec is so poorly designed in TBC. It gets tons better in WOTLK.

Level as arms/fury but hold onto your tank gear for now.

[Akkox-myzrael]

Thank you ALL for this great info!!!

I will stick to Arms and use this advice. Some really good tips here, i really appreciate that. I am engineering so i am going to utilize those nades too.

[Valkryn-mankrik]

Also doesnt hurt to remind group to wait for los pulls and let you get aggro. Mark targets and make sure hunters turn their pets taunt off.

[Ehila-arugal]

If you want to tank as low level just take tac mastery and otherwise be a regular dps spec.