General Guide to High-End Warrior PVE-Tanking

Zooc and Landolph from Nihilum wrote:

I have compiled a series of questions and topics on this forum into what I hope is an informative guide on warriors. This guide is meant for PVE Tanking.



Warrior leveling is not an easy task, especially because the gear you have translates directly into the damage you deal and receive from mobs. The best leveling spec for a warrior is definitely fury (click for talents). Start off with fury tree up to Bloodthirst, then switch to arms tree up to Impale, then put the rest of the points as you see fit.

If you have friends with which you can level, going Protection and grinding instances is by far the best way to get from 60 to 70 because you get access to a wide array of items, and you get to grind Reputation, which you will later need for doing heroics and such. Plus you get a lot of experience when it comes to multi-mob tanking and various abilities and spells that might prove useful when you do heroics or raid for the first time. The spec which you should have at 60 if you’re going prot is this.



Speaking solely from an end-game perspective, what you should aim for first and foremost is 490 defense. After that you go for 25% avoidance (which you should already have without a problem from the defense alone) and last but not least you stack stamina gems in ALL your sockets. In time, with getting new gear you’ll get to the point where you’ll afford to put stamina gems in every single socket. Stamina is the most important stat for a warrior, and NOT avoidance as many people seem to think. Massive avoidance is not reliable and is unpredictable. The warrior is the top tank in this game and when it comes to tanking in itself, it’s not only melee dmg you have to endure. For that, STA is above all else. Of course, still stacking defense + stamina isn’t a wrong choice since defense provides a little bit of every mitigation stat, as shown below.



TANKING

The standard tank spec is 8/5/48
Reasoning behind it: improved thunderclap is a must these days since Thunderfury is outdated. You will face many situations where multi-mob tanking is necessary both in raids and outside, and for that Imp. TC is perfect. 5/5 cruelty is a must, no discussion about it. At T6 level, 5% crit is around 30% of a warrior’s total crit chance, crit translates directly into more aggro, more rage, more damage. 0/3 Imp. Sunder Armor – The reason for 0 points in this is that as an MT, the initial 5 sunders should not be a problem when tanking a boss. If there are DPS warriors in the raid, they should be the ones helping with initial sunders so the MT can use his maximum aggro skills.



TANKING

Helm: best helm enchant you can get is NOT the CoT one, but the ZG one. Unfortunately not many guilds will go ZG just so their tank can get a small upgrade.

Shoulder: the best Enchant after you reached the above-mentioned mitigation-rate is the Sapphiron-Shoulder Enchant Fortitude of the Scourge (16Stamina 100 Armor). But with this it is basically the same as with the Helm-Enchant, only few guilds will do almost whole Naxx just for a tiny Tank-upgrade.

Weapon: Mongoose is by far the best choice for a raiding warrior, but the new patch will bring an interesting alternative: Executioner - Use: Learn how to permanently enchant a Melee Weapon to occasionally ignore 840 of your enemy’s armor. Requires a level 35 or higher item. Assuming the procrate is similar to that of Mongoose, this enchant should be superior in terms of threat generation.

Boots: Boar’s Speed and not 12 stamina. The minor speed increase will prove to be way more useful in more situations than 3 extra stamina.



TANKING

If you’ve just hit 70, your best bet would be to go Blacksmithing. This profession provides you with a great initial tanking weapon - [Fireguard], which will later be upgraded into Blazefury, the best you can get until Mallet of the Tides. You can also craft different pieces of epic tanking armor, for which you would otherwise have to pay a nether fee.

Enchanting – Although not playing a major part in warrior itemization, the +4 to all stats on ring is mildly useful since a tanking warrior needs a hefty amount of both stamina, strength and agility. Of course this enchant isn't available to anyone but it's still an option.

Engineering – It’s not the most popular profession but you can craft yourself [Tankatronic Goggles] – a Tier 5 equivalent tank helm.

Gathering professions – Your personal choice, if you don’t have a grinding alt, this will be your only way to make money as a prot warrior along with playing the AH.



When it comes to tanking skill rotation, if you’re the only tank sundering the boss, start off with your highest aggro skill (Shield Slam). If you got improved bloodrage which you should have, you can throw a Shield Slam immediately after you popped it which means you don’t have to wait for a hit from yourself or either the boss to have enough rage.
The skill rotation, while keeping Shield Block up all the time and the occasional Heroic Strike for rage dump, is: Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate > Devastate, assuming the 5 initial sunders are up. If not, replace Devastate with Sunder Armor until they are. You can check WoW-Europe class forums for some math on Devastate vs Sunder/Heroic Strike aggro values, but I won’t bother to list it here. All I can say is Devastate is far superior in any situation, both with a slow or fast weapon.



Any warrior should always have the following consumables on him:
+ Elixir of Mastery
+ Elixir of Major Fortitude
+ Elixir of Major Agility
+ Ironshield Potion
+ Super Healing Potion
+ Mighty Rage Potion (very important as MT)
+ Swiftness Potion
+ Bandages
+ Nightmare Seed (uses Healthstone cooldown, but also acts like a mini Last Stand)
+ Flask of Fortification
+ Flask of Relentless Assault
+ Strength Food
+ 30 Stamina Food
+ Adamantite Sharpening Stone
+ Haste Potion

Of course just having them won't make you the best warrior alive, you actually have to use these effectively. For example you'd use the Ironshield Potion in case you'll take melee only damage extensively throughout the fight. The Swiftness Potion comes in really handy when you have to reach a set position really fast (like going back to the tank spot after Al'ar does the fire novas). Nightmare Seed is pretty much self explanatory, use it when you take burst damage or in situations like Hydross transitions. The sharpening stones are good for when you don't have a shaman or are dpsing as offtank.