Hey all. I am wanting to level a tank for an alt and cannot decide between bear and prot warrior. I enjoy the play style of both.
Any and all suggestions are welcomed.
Thank you.
Prot all day, everyday, and twice on Sunday. It’s just so enjoyable! And its DPS specs are not slouch.
Druid (particularly Guardian) has extremely problematic issues with it’s class and spec tree, and currently has brute-force tuning so the tank is bearable.
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Nothing beats being able to charge (up to 4 charges now in DF) or leap. Shield charge is immensely satisfying.
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I have a bear druid, its on horde. While its only level 60, my warrior has been vastly more fun the entire leveling experience. It isnt really the damage and self sustain either, all 3 warrior specs are a ton of fun to play. Even (when) the self sustain takes a hit, all 3 specs will still be super fun and a lot of ways to play each of them.
Where as bear druid doesn’t have much build potential from what I saw, and personally not a fan of feral or balance. Maybe restoration be fun too. But bear druid in comparison to prot warrior is definitely much slower and not very fun to me personally.
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Guardian is my favorite spec, and has been for some time. Thrash just feels so good to press, i love the manipulatable nature of Ironfur (keep a steady stream going for smooth damage intake, pool rage and fire off a bunch in succession for big hits etc.). And of course, being a Bear, is pretty neat. Its an easy to grasp tank that has a good amount of room for optimization due to being a Druid - and that room for optimization has grown quite a bit now with Maul hitting so hard and rage management with After the Wildfire (can i get away with limited Ironfur stacks uptime and just smash face with Maul / pool rage for a few seconds to delay a big wildfire heal). I like feeling like a “tank” in a traditional sense, and Bear makes me feel like the classic brawler style tank who takes it on the chin, but is tough as nails.
That said, Prot Warrior REALLY makes me feel like a tank in the most traditional sense. Shield Block is ridiculously powerful, and smashing somebodies face in with my shield feels…ya thats about as OG RPG tank as it gets. While Guardian has slightly more moment to moment dynamic gameplay, Warrior has an extreme “one minuteish” rhytm of dynamic gameplay that more imprtantly, FEELS massively impactful. Sure, popping Incarnation and Rage of the Sleeper with a full Rage Bar and Thrash already stacked feels great, and your rewarded with absurd single target damage, but it simply cannot match the visceral feeling of “screw it, its time go H.A.M” Battle Stance, Avatar, Demo Shout, Thunderous Roar, Ravager, TClap, Slam, TClap, Revenge, TClap TCLAP TCLAP TCLAP…
That Prot Warrior feels so good despite having just TWO rotationals (SSlam + TClap) is a testament to the design teams vision for it. You can still end up with a ton of buttons, and almost all of those are high impact small CD abilities. Ravager, Shockwave, Roar, Spell Block, Shield Charge and so on. The mobility while no longer unique to the class (VDH and BrM say hi), still feels awesome.
Thats my long winded way of saying “Play a prot warrior”. I think it will appeal to far more players than Guardian does in its current state. I will always tell people “play the tank you like, current power level and community perception be damned” and i stand by that, but if i HAD to reccomend just one tank at the moment, its good ole Sword’n’Board. That has almost nothing to do with it being strong (tank balance sans Brewmaster feels absurdly good rn), its just well designed.
Thats not to say i dont reccomend Guardian, i still love it. However, i feel like Bear is only going to feel rewarding if a) your new to tanking or b) its your main. The nuance is there, but i feel your midcore “AotC / KSM by seasoms end” level player isnt going to appreciate it as much. A Bear who heals an absurd amount by keeping up Moonfire on a gazillion targets, keeps multiple stacks of IF up consitently and times Wildfire perfectly is going to be INFINITELY more useful than some entry level tank who macros IF to their abilities and presses swipe over and over. But its far more “indirect” in its impact aside from Wildfire Heals, while a good rallying cry, shockwave, challenging shout is going to be apparent to both the user their group.
PS: Get the Thunder Clap glyph. You’re welcome.
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Leveling as Guardian has been a breeze. Unkillable and huge damage. 2-3 shot most mobs with maul critical hits.
Not as engaging as warrior, but satisfying so far.
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What’s the 4th? Two charge and intervene right?
2 charges, dragon charge and shield charge, I believe.
For mobility in the open world you have:
- Charge 1
- Charge 2 (if specced for 2 Charges)
- Shield Charge (if specced)
- Intervene (if near a friendly player)
- Dragon Charge (if War Mode: ON and specced)
- Heroic Leap (if specced)
- Heroic Leap 3s +70% movement (if specced)
Essentially, you have quite a bit of movement…
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