As a Warrior Tank, which is better to use? Faster weapons, or slower weapons?
Most tank weapons in-game had slow weapon speeds, but based on what some say based on logic, faster weapons are better. I don’t know which is actually correct.
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Faster is better.
Threat comes from a few sources.
Shield slam(weapon speed doesn’t matter)
Revenge(most threat is from ability modifier so speed doesn’t matter)
Sunder armor(weapon speed doesn’t matter)
Heroic strike( flat threat modifier on next attack, so more attacks means you can potentially heroic strike more)
White dmg(weapon dps matters, speed does not)
So if you have lots of rage faster weapons will generate more threat.
However if you dont have lots of rage you are better off with a slower weapon so you do not parry haste your target as often, less swings means less times the target can parry you.
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If I remember correctly faster attack speeds generated more threat, so those were the go to more often than not. If I’m mistaken please let me know!
Oh another reason you might want a faster weapon as a tank is they give a more consistent rage generation, which is very nice as a tank.
a faster weapon means the boss parries more often
if the boss parries more of your attacks, the boss hits more often, which also means that you can get more parries and so on
if the boss hits more often, more of his attacks can potentially be crushing blows, and crushing blows can spell a wipe; they’re gonna happen anyway, but they’ll happen more often with a fast weapon than with a slow weapon
also faster weapons are worse per rage for cleaves; do note that heroic strike’s bonus threat is a flat amount of threat
if you want threat, use a fast weapon
if you want defense, use a slow weapon
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Regarding the latter, one could probably argue that if you are rage-starved, you’re probably not taking much damage anyway, so parry hastes are probably not going to be that big of a deal.
I always preferred at least a moderately fast weapon ~2.0 or less, because there are times when you’re rage fills up. Maybe you’re having to move around a lot or distracted and having to communicate with the raid or maybe you just got hit by a breath weapon or for whatever reason you can’t keep a perfect rotation going for a short stretch or you get a rage spike, etc. Suddenly your rage bar is full. So I when I find myself in that situation, I like to be able to dump it quickly with HS so none of it goes to waste.
Thunderfury is the best tanking weapon in the game with no replacement, it’s speed is 1.9.
Ironfoe is the second best threat weapon in the game, and comes in at 2.4
The next two, both from Kel’Thuzad have a speed of 1.5 and 2.7 respectively. What makes them rank so high is the weapon DPS and stamina.
All things considered faster is better, but it is the least important aspect of the weapon in terms of threat generation. Put another way, there are a lot of slow 1-handers that rank pretty high on threat and tank points.
I am highly suspect of the ironfoe as next best, It really all comes down to the proc rate which I have heard the private servers guessed at the proc rate.
But we will see once classic comes out and we have actual data
I remember the fastest 1h I used was a 1.8 speed weapon. Best of both worlds. Fast enough for threat and rage generation but slow enough to have a higher top end for harder hitting heroic strikes.
1.6 speed was a good spot as well. I didn’t like anything fast or slower than those 2. Rage generation has a feel to it depending on your play style. There are always number crunchers but I mainly did it by feel.
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