I found that trying to get Sweeping Strikes going, while a great choice if you’ve got patient DPS, is a real dealbreaker for the impatient DPS who seem to be in the majority. That initial 30 rage - two sunders’ worth - is a seriously tough proposition; even if the 5x weapon damage is more than two def-stance sunders’ worth of threat, it’s not happening in two GCDs, and the 55 total energy you wind up needing for the Sweeping->Whirlwind just didn’t happen fast enough for any of the pugs I ran with when I was arms tanking.
Importantly, WW and all of the SS additions off it may generate a tasty burst of threat, but since you’re not benefiting from the defensive stance threat multiplier (and IIRC there’s actually a threat penalty on arms & zerk) it’s not quite as tasty as you might imagine. All this isn’t to say that Elite is wrong to suggest that opener, because he isn’t, but that maybe he’s playing with better DPS than you or I will and when your party just starts mashing buttons as soon as they hear the charge sound effect you may need to give up on full AoE threat or contributing damage.
Particularly in leveling dungeons, basically all I’m doing is making sure that the healer isn’t getting touched, and holding as many mobs off the DPS as is practical. If there are five mobs on a mage, you can easily taunt one and sunder another, but if you try to spread your efforts between all five while the mage continues spamming Arcane Explosion… even with defiance you’re likely to wind up tanking none of the mobs instead of 2/5, and that could be the difference between a living or dead mage, or - a much graver concern - between a low or oom healer.
Mostly with a 2 hander. Dps output is higher, so I get more rage and threat, so I can put out more rage and threat.
Will put on a 1h and Shield if my healer is a a third string healer.
No reason to dump points in prot at all pre-60. Even post 60, unless your guild is gonna give you a guaranteed raid slot and feed you priority on gear, dont spec prot. It’s a waste of your character slot since you’ll suck at literally everything except being a punching bag. Meanwhile an arms or fury warrior is for all practical purposes just as good a tank and doesnt feel like they want to kill themselves when its time to grind or pvp.
If Dot wants to post on their classic 60 warrior then take their advice. If you want to suck at tanking take Dot’s advice. If you want to PvP go arms and queue as DPS with WW and a 2H you’ll out DPS everything but mages in 5 mans but don’t try to tank post 55 in this meta as arms. I’m playing the game as a warrior not theorycrafting and I’m telling you, you’re not a tank if you’re not protection post 55. Your DPS output for threat generation is worth nothing if your healer is oom after every pull. As prot I can chain pulls with the healer 75% full the whole dungeon with only sorry mana managing casters missing out on precious DPS. Seriously just get good at fury now because if you don’t want to commit protection you’re never going to raid as a tank. Oh and if you’re an edge lord and think fury tanking is a thing, good luck selling that since you can’t even play warrior when it’s easy.
31/5/15 is so much better than a 31 prot point build for everyday usability it’s not even funny. And the difference in survivability is all but nonexistent.
ITT: Edgelords gonna suck at tanking to quest outside of dungeons and justify their actions with “it’s viable”
Yes nerds, you can tank as a gimp arms or pathetic fury. End of the day you can dual wield with damage bonus to 1h weps and solo quest mobs just fine. The idea here is you are an instance tank. Your group doesn’t care about your life outside the dungeon. Would you appreciate the healer being a DPS spec? Your DPS a tank spec? You’ll never know but you’ll know, just like they’ll wish you could hold aggro…
This time I’m probably just going full arms until I get MS (so I don’t have to respec), but sometimes I like to get Tactical Mastery and then go into Prot for 1 point of Improved Shield Block (just enough to get the second Block charge) and then Defiance.
I typically use 1h and shield, and I prefer faster 1h’s with high dps for tanking. For Alliance characters without access to windfury, blacksmith’s sharpening/weighstones are a nice cheap boost.
Rage is kind of dicey sometimes; be judicious with your use of Heroic Strike, and remember that Revenge is amazing threat-per-rage.
Also, shield spikes are really good for passive bonus threat.
Lol, whut?
Specced prot and never had a problem holding aggro unless the DPS is 6+ levels above me.
Unless of course you’re in one of those groups where the rogue starts stunning mobs, and then the mage hits them before you do, then it’s just a f’in mess.