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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:30:34 GMT
Abilities, Rotation, and Cooldowns
Many of our abilities function identically to their prior incarnations, however, timings of cooldowns have been shuffled with in a grand design scheme to make tanks less powerful on their own for long periods of time. Before you cry foul however, remember: Blizzard has also adjusted incoming boss damage to compensate, so the result should be nill to identical. This just means we don't go for longer periods without being healed because we can do it ourselves anymore.
Active Mitigation still functions identically to how it did previously, but the cooldown on Shield Block has been increased significantly to keep us in line with other tanks.
Rage generation functions nearly identically, and shall be broken down into Generators, Spenders, and Cooldowns:
Rage Generators:
Shield Slam: 20 Rage (+5 Rage if used during Sword and Board proc, and 30 if a Critical Strike), 6 second CD
Revenge: 20 Rage, 9 second CD
Charge: 20 Rage, 20 Second CD (Shares diminishing returns on the same target, only first Charge grants Rage)
Critical Blocks (Cause Enrage): 10 Rage, 3 second ICD
Berserker Rage (Cause Enrage): 10 Rage, 30 second CD)
Rage Spenders:
Shield Block: 60 Rage, 12 second CD; 2 Charges
Shield Barrier: 20 Rage; can go up to 60 Rage maximum
Heroic Strike: 30 Rage, 1.5 second CD (off the GCD)
Execute: 30 Rage
Cooldowns:
Shield Wall: Reduces damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. 2 minute CD
Last Stand: Increases current and maximum health by 30% for 15 seconds. 3 minute CD
Demoralizing Shout: Demoralizes all enemies within 10 yards, reducing the damage they deal to you by 20%. Lasts 8 seconds. 1 minute CD
Rotation:
Our “rotation” if you will, hasn't actually changed in Warlords; the priority queue is still the same at its core: Shield Slam > Revenge > Devastate. This is still your single-target priority for abilities for threat, DPS and Rage generation. Devastate, while it actually generates no rage, can be considered a boon for rage generation purely through its ability to proc Sword and Board, which boosts the rage generated by Shield Slam by 5 and additionally resetting its cooldown.
Single Target:
Shield Slam > Ravager > Dragon Roar > Revenge > Devastate.
AoE (if more than 3 mobs):
Thunder Clap > Level 60 Talent (Shockwave or Dragon Roar) > Revenge > Heroic Strike on Ultimatum Procs
AoE (if 3 or less mobs):
Revenge > Tier 60 Talent (Shockwave or Dragon Roar) > Thunder Clap > Heroic Strike on Ultimatum procs.
The Level 45 Talent Row complicates this slightly, in terms of taking advantage of the raw DPS benefit of the specific talent you've taken. A few notes on them are as follows, if at all rough guides for which to use:
Using Heavy Repercussions: Prioritize Shield Slam within a Shield Block window over any other ability at all times. This is pretty much handled identically to how you handled it in 5.4.
Using Sudden Death: Execute hits harder than any other ability you have, so use it over any other ability whenever possible.
Using Unyielding Strikes: Prioritizes Devastate more heavily to keep buff rolling; 5 stacks isn't necessary.
Again, these are rough rules to follow and not set in stone, as the Beta period is still carrying on. This will be updated accordingly when and if changes are made to them.
Shield Block vs. Shield Barrier Part II: Electric Boogaloo
“Which one do I use when? One's an absorb and the other just lets me block all the time!” Well, the answer isn't really simple. The most simplistic I can make it for you is that “Well, which one prevents more damage?”
Let’s look at the abilities individually first:
Shield Block - 60 Rage, Blocking 100% of attacks made against you for 6 seconds. Blocks can be critical blocks
-OR-
Shield Barrier - 20-60 Rage, absorb effect which lasts 6 seconds, scales with rage spent, Stamina and Attack Power
Remember that Shield Block, at its core, is just augmenting your normal ability to block, or reduce 30% damage from physical attacks only. Sure, some of the time these can be Critical Blocks (60% reduction), but Critical Blocks are still random, and as such unreliable unless you stack the hell out of Mastery, and even then, won't result in you hitting that numerical plateau in available gear.
Shield Barrier, on the other hand, scales with your Resolve level during an encounter, and ergo, the boss's incoming damage towards you as well. This means there will be scenarios in which Shield Barrier will reduce more damage over the course of a fight overall on just normal melee attacks. In these situations, Barrier will almost always win out. An easy way to tell generally is to have an addon track about how much your Barrier will absorb for, similar to Blood DKs using an addon to track incoming Blood Shields for mitigation purposes.
If you don’t really feel like dealing with that, then here are some good basic rules to follow:
Do you have a lot of adds beating on your face? Use Shield Block. Reason being: One absorb shield is going to be chewed up fairly quickly by any group of adds over 3 beating on you, and you're going to be back at Square One again. Shield Block gives you a 100% chance to block every attack while it's up for 6 seconds; at that point you will on average, reduce more damage than you could ever hope to with Barrier.
Is the one boss you're tanking beating your face in? If it's melee attacks, use Shield Block (eg: Malkorok Phase 1). If it's via magic (such as spells being cast like say, Lei Shi, or Kardris on Dark Shaman), or through a persistent Damage Over Time ability, use Barrier.
The realistic answer, however, is that just because you use one doesn't make using the other impossible. While rage is more controlled and “slower” than it used to be, rage also can still dynamically change on you and spike upwards thanks to a few lucky Critical Blocks or avoids at just the right times. Think about not just that your enemy is hitting you, but how your enemy is hitting you; for how much, with what, and how that can be mitigated.
If you know when a spike in damage is coming that cannot be blocked (Execute on Heroic, now Mythic, General Nazgrim, as an example), Barrier will almost certainly be the way to go over Block.
The key here however, is to dynamically observe where damage is coming from, and react to it accordingly as best you can. This is where the “Active” in “Active Mitigation” comes from that Blizzard wanted you to adapt to.
When can I use Heroic Strike?
Most of the time you'll only be using it on Ultimatum procs, but if you want to DPS the boss and not cap rage (and aren't spec'd into Heavy Repercussions), it's acceptable to use it occasionally in this circumstance.
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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:30:46 GMT
Stat Priorities
Stats have significantly changed since Mists of Pandaria, chiefly amongst them, the loss of avoidance stats, as well as the removal of Expertise and Hit. In addition, new stats of Multistrike, Versatility, and Bonus Armor have been added to our loot tables and items.
I will be splitting the stat priority for Protection into two schools of thought; Offensive and Defensive:
Defensive: Bonus Armor > Mastery > Critical Strike > Versatility > Haste > Multistrike
Offensive: Bonus Armor > Critical Strike > Mastery > Haste > Multistrike > Versatility
As for Stamina, you follow an “enough” rule; what that means is that if you need more, get more until you have enough to survive. This means that if you need more, it is your first priority after Bonus Armor (unless you're gearing for survival against magic attacks).
Special Note for Level 90: Crit is your friend, gear for crit, unless you really need the extra survivability Mastery provides.
Critical Strike: Crit does a few things for Protection. It grants Parry (30% of Crit found on gear becomes Parry as well), grants additional Rage through Shield Slam/Revenge critical strikes via proccing Enrage, and obviously inflates DPS through addition of avoidance (and thus more Revenge procs), Enrage uptime, and natural increases through critical strikes.
Bonus Armor: Bonus Armor is a natural increase for Effective Health (or EH) against physical attacks, and comes naturally on only a few pieces (Trinkets, Necks, Cloaks, and Shields). In addition to its interaction with physical damage reduction, Bonus Armor also grants 1 AP per point when found on gear, which makes it compete with Strength in terms of value. However, it can only be found on a few pieces, and as such should be prioritized where possible.
Mastery: Mastery still functions identically to how it functioned in Mists; boosting Block Chance (badly) and boosting Critical Block chance (noticeably). Furthermore, it also boosts Attack Power by a percentage. This turns Mastery into a true double-duty stat, which can benefit us offensively, as well as defensively.
Haste: Haste is historically a non-necessary stat for Warriors, but thanks to the addition of Headlong Rush reducing our GCDs as well as the cooldowns on Shield Slam and Thunder Clap, Haste becomes at least slightly valuable to us now. You won't be stacking this stat in any serious capacity, but having it on your gear isn't a bad thing.
Multistrike: Multistrike is a new stat, that grants you two individual chances equal to the total percent chance of Multistrike on your gear to have your attacks or heals cleave towards another target for 30% of normal value. This ability only really works towards proccing Blood Craze, which is only procced from normal auto-attack Multistrikes. As auto attacks aren't a huge source of our damage, it's pretty understandable that this would be far from our most valuable stat.
Versatility: Versatility passively boosts your damage done, healing done, and damage reduced by a percentage. Pretty self-explanatory, and while it's valuable, stacking it at the expense of other, real stats isn't advised.
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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:31:17 GMT
Consumables, Enchants, and Gems
Because of the restructuring of stats, as well as professions and itemization, gemming is slightly more straightforward.
Gems:
Greater Critical Strike Taladite (If going Offensively), or Greater Mastery Taladite (if going Defensively).
Enchants:
Enchants and flasks are where you'll truly be customizing which stats you're chasing, but even there, you're still only going to have a few options.
Weapon - Mark of Blackrock (Sometimes increases armor by 500 for 12 seconds; can only proc below 50% health) or Mark of the Thunderlord (sometimes increases critical strike by 500 for 6 seconds; while active critical heals or attacks may extend the duration).
On cloaks, rings and necklaces, your options will be Critical Strike or Mastery, depending on what you want to chase as a priority.
Consumables:
Food - Blackrock Barbeque (if Offensive), Sleeper Surprise (if Defensive), Talador Surf and Turf (if you need more Stamina).
Flasks – Greater Draenic Stamina Flask (if progression) or Greater Draenic Strength Flask (if farming/need more DPS)
Potions – Draenic Armor Potion (provides more DPS benefit than Strength in the form of greater Attack Power)
Pre-potting is still a thing you should do if you care at all about DPS, and as such, you should ideally be popping one armor potion before combat, and then another time during the fight (hopefully during a burn phase/when your cds are up). This also gives you a bonus shot of mitigation as well, and it's particularly valuable during those first tense seconds in a fight when the boss just begins hitting you, and healers are still trying to catch up slightly.
Additionally, you'll be able to use healing potions independent of the normal potion cooldown.
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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:31:37 GMT
Talents
I'll briefly go over talents and which ones you should take when here, at very least as a general ruling guide. Talents, as per Blizzard's design, are a little more flexible in some scenarios, and can be changed on the fly between pulls or encounters.
Tier 1: Mobility
Juggernaut - You can charge every 12 seconds as opposed to once every 20 seconds.
Double Time - You can charge twice in a row. Each use has a 20 second cooldown. Charge can only grant rage once every 12 seconds.
Warbringer - Your charge stuns the target for 1.5 seconds instead of rooting it.
Out of this tier, your main real options are Double Time or Juggernaut; some have preferences to one or the other, but as a Protection Warrior in a PvE setting I can't think of any serious encounters where you're going to require the usage of Warbringer over either of the others.
Tier 1: Double Time or Juggernaut
Tier 2: Healing and Survivability
Enraged Regeneration - Instantly heal 10% of your health and heal an additional 20% over 5 seconds. Can be used while stunned.
Second Wind - When you are below 35% Health you gain 10% leech, healing yourself for a percentage of damage you deal.
Impending Victory - Instantly attack the target causing (200% attack power) damage and healing you for 15% of your maximum health. Killing an enemy that yield EXP or Honor Resets the cooldown of Impending Victory. Replaces Victory rush. Costs 10 rage.
This tier hasn't changed too much for us either; on average, you're going to be using Enraged Regeneration vs. Impending Victory (but there are places for it), and Second Wind is still terrible for any content you're doing that can actually kill you.
Tier 2: Enraged Regeneration, or maybe Impending Victory in certain scenarios.
Tier 3: Damage!
Heavy Repercussions – Shield Slam deals 30% additional damage while Shield Block or Shield Charge is active.
Sudden Death - Your auto-attack hits have a 20% chance to make your next Execute cost no initial rage and be usable on any target, regardless of health level.
Unyielding Strikes – Devastate reduces the Rage cost of Heroic Strike by 5 for 5 seconds, stacking up to 6 times. Once this effect reaches 6 applications, its duration will no longer refresh.
Of these three, all are valid options for DPS, and are within roughly 100-200 DPS of each other according to sims. However, one minor note is that as your gear quality improves, Unyielding Strikes will become less attractive as far as options go (more crit = more avoidance, more avoidance means more Revenge, which means less Devastate spamming).
Each of these will dynamically affect your rotation in some way, as noted above in the Abilities section.
Tier 3: Any
Tier 4: Stuns!
Storm Bolt - Hurl your weapon at an enemy causing 60% physical damage and stunning it for 4 seconds. Deals quadruple damage to targets permanently immune to stuns.
Shockwave - Sends a wave of force in a frontal cone before you, causing (125% Attack Power) damage and stunning all enemies within 10 yard for 4 seconds. Hitting 3 more targets lowers the cooldown by 20 seconds.
Dragon Roar - Roar ferociously, causing (165% of Attack Power) damage to all enemies within 8 yards knocking them down for 0.5 seconds. Dragon Roar is always a critical strike and ignores armor on the target.
For this tier, the only real largely significant change is the removal of Bladestorm and the addition of Storm Bolt for thematic reasons. In addition, Shockwave is useful in certain scenarios, but Dragon Roar still maintains its presence as our best single-target option, but it also no longer splits damage evenly amongst targets, but deals flat damage to all targets in a radius around you. Storm Bolt's cooldown is usually too prohibitive to use full time
Tier 4: Shockwave (if you need AoE stuns), Dragon Roar for single-target damage
Tier 5: Utility
Mass Spell Reflection - Reflects the next spell cast on you and on all party and raid members within 20 yards for 5 seconds. Replaces Spell Reflection.
Safeguard - Run at high speeds towards a party or raid member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them and reducing their damage taken by 20% for 6 seconds. Replaces intervene.
Vigilance - Focus your protective gaze on a party or raid member reducing the damage they take by 30% for 12 seconds.
Because of the change to MSR, and because Safeguard doesn't break roots or snares anymore, most Warriors will be happy defaulting to Vigilance for added utility. Nobody thinks extra 30% damage reduction cooldowns are anything to take for granted, especially on progression fights, and the taunt resetting is an added bonus for add management.
Tier 5: Vigilance, or Spell Reflect if you need the utility it provides for your raid
Tier 6: Cooldowns!
Avatar - You Transform into a colossus for 24 seconds, breaking all roots and snares and increasing your damage dealt by 20%.
Bloodbath - For the next 12 seconds your melee damage abilities and their multi-strikes deal 30% additional damage as a bleed over 6 seconds. While Bleeding targets move 50% slower.
Bladestorm - Become an unstoppable storm of destructive force, striking all targets within 8 yards for 240% Physical damage every 1 second for 6 seconds. You are immune to movement impairing and loss of control effects, but can only use Taunt and other defensive abilities.
With the loss of Recklessness and Skull Banner, Protection (like most tank specs) is lacking in the throughput cooldown department, and this tier augments that capability. Bloodbath is still the estimated highest DPS talent of the three, Avatar is a potent increase in damage for very specific burst scenarios...and Bladestorm is Bladestorm.
Tier 6: Bloodbath (Arguments can be made for Avatar in certain circumstances).
Tier 7: New Things!
Anger Management: Every 30 rage that you spend reduces the remaining cooldown of several of your abilities by 1 second (For Protection this is: Avatar, Bloodbath, Bladestorm, Storm Bolt, Shockwave, Dragon Roar, Mocking Banner, Heroic Leap, Shield Wall, Demoralizing Shout and Last Stand).
Ravager: Throw a whirling axe at the target location that inflicts damage to enemies within 6 yards every 1 second. Lasts 10 seconds. Also increases your Parry chance by 30% for the duration.
Gladiator's Resolve: Increases the damage reduction provided by Defensive Stance by 5%. Alsow allows you to forgo your defensive role, and instead focus only on offensive capabilities, by replacing Battle Stance with Gladiator Stance.
Gladiator Stance is:
A dauntless combat stance.
Increases physical damage dealt by 20%, and replaces your Shield Block with Shield Charge.
You cannot change into or out of this stance during combat.
This tier is a very clear-cut option for Protection Warriors; if you intend on tanking, you should be taking Ravager. Yes I realize Gladiator's Resolve gives you an extra 5% damage reduction. No, that doesn't mean you should take it for tanking.
Gladiator's Resolve is mostly here to open up a brand new play style for DPS in allowing Protection to deal very substantial damage via this talent, and really that other bit for Defensive Stance is there so we can say it offers functionality to Protection as a whole. Anger Management doesn't do nearly enough for any spec of Warrior, especially Protection, to actually be worth anything at all in the first place, so that makes our choice very clear.
Tier 7: Ravager
So, just to recap, the talents most Protection Warriors (for tanking) should be taking, are the following:
Tier 1: Double Time or Juggernaut
Tier 2: Enraged Regeneration, or maybe Impending Victory in certain scenarios.
Tier 3: Any (at higher gear levels, either Heavy Repercussions or Sudden Death).
Tier 4: Shockwave (if you need AoE stuns), Dragon Roar for single-target damage
Tier 5: Vigilance, or Spell Reflect if you need the utility it provides for your raid
Tier 6: Bloodbath (Arguments can be made for Avatar in certain circumstances).
Tier 7: Ravager
Glyphs
Glyphs are a little more flexible than they used to be back in Mists of Pandaria, if and only if that there's probably only one “mandatory” glyph in Glyph of Cleave, but even that's debatable in and of itself. However, some glyphs are just flat out terrible choices all around, and as such I'll highlight which choices are decent options this go around:
Cleave – Heroic Strike now hits 2 targets.
Death from Above – Reduces the cooldown on Heroic Leap by 15 seconds, but the rnage of Heroic Leap is also reduced by 15 yards.
Enraged Speed – While Enraged, you move 20% faster.
Gag Order – Your Pummel and Heroic Throw also silence the target for 3 seconds. Does not work against players. This effect can only occur every 15 seconds.
Resonating Power – Increases the damage and cooldown of Thunder Clap by 50%.
Rude Interruption – Successfully interrupting a spell with Pummel increases your damage by 6% for 20 seconds.
Heroic Leap – Increases your speed by 70% for 3 seconds after using Heroic Leap.
Mocking Banner – Your Mocking Banner now causes creatures to attack the tank specialization player you had targeted when placing the Mocking Banner, instead of attacking you.
Spell Reflection – Reduces the cooldown on Spell Reflection by 5 seconds. Does not work with Mass Spell Reflection.
Shield Slam – Your Shield Slam now dispels 1 magical effect.
Unending Rage – Increases your maximum Rage by 20.
Victorious Throw – Increases the range of Victory Rush and Impending victory by 15 yards.
Wind and Thunder – Increases the radius of Whirlwind and Thunder Clap by 4 yards.
Because of the lack of absolute all-stars in terms of DPS on glyphs, these slots are way more flexible than most classes, and as such, you can really take whatever you want within the pool listed above and be fine. On average, there's a circumstance for each one of these, and somehow someone will find one to use it on.
“Go-To Glyphs” will look something like this, in order of priority:
Unending Rage
Cleave
Wind and Thunder
Heroic Leap
Gag Order
Resonating Power
Enraged Speed
Rude Interruption
Mocking Banner
Shield Slam
Victorious Throw
Death from Above
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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:31:51 GMT
Talents
I'll briefly go over talents and which ones you should take when here, at very least as a general ruling guide. Talents, as per Blizzard's design, are a little more flexible in some scenarios, and can be changed on the fly between pulls or encounters.
Tier 1: Mobility
Juggernaut - You can charge every 12 seconds as opposed to once every 20 seconds.
Double Time - You can charge twice in a row. Each use has a 20 second cooldown. Charge can only grant rage once every 12 seconds.
Warbringer - Your charge stuns the target for 1.5 seconds instead of rooting it.
Out of this tier, your main real options are Double Time or Juggernaut; some have preferences to one or the other, but as a Protection Warrior in a PvE setting I can't think of any serious encounters where you're going to require the usage of Warbringer over either of the others.
Tier 1: Double Time or Juggernaut
Tier 2: Healing and Survivability
Enraged Regeneration - Instantly heal 10% of your health and heal an additional 20% over 5 seconds. Can be used while stunned.
Second Wind - When you are below 35% Health you gain 10% leech, healing yourself for a percentage of damage you deal.
Impending Victory - Instantly attack the target causing (200% attack power) damage and healing you for 15% of your maximum health. Killing an enemy that yield EXP or Honor Resets the cooldown of Impending Victory. Replaces Victory rush. Costs 10 rage.
This tier hasn't changed too much for us either; on average, you're going to be using Enraged Regeneration vs. Impending Victory (but there are places for it), and Second Wind is still terrible for any content you're doing that can actually kill you.
Tier 2: Enraged Regeneration, or maybe Impending Victory in certain scenarios.
Tier 3: Damage!
Heavy Repercussions – Shield Slam deals 30% additional damage while Shield Block or Shield Charge is active.
Sudden Death - Your auto-attack hits have a 20% chance to make your next Execute cost no initial rage and be usable on any target, regardless of health level.
Unyielding Strikes – Devastate reduces the Rage cost of Heroic Strike by 5 for 5 seconds, stacking up to 6 times. Once this effect reaches 6 applications, its duration will no longer refresh.
Of these three, all are valid options for DPS, and are within roughly 100-200 DPS of each other according to sims. However, one minor note is that as your gear quality improves, Unyielding Strikes will become less attractive as far as options go (more crit = more avoidance, more avoidance means more Revenge, which means less Devastate spamming).
Each of these will dynamically affect your rotation in some way, as noted above in the Abilities section.
Tier 3: Any
Tier 4: Stuns!
Storm Bolt - Hurl your weapon at an enemy causing 60% physical damage and stunning it for 4 seconds. Deals quadruple damage to targets permanently immune to stuns.
Shockwave - Sends a wave of force in a frontal cone before you, causing (125% Attack Power) damage and stunning all enemies within 10 yard for 4 seconds. Hitting 3 more targets lowers the cooldown by 20 seconds.
Dragon Roar - Roar ferociously, causing (165% of Attack Power) damage to all enemies within 8 yards knocking them down for 0.5 seconds. Dragon Roar is always a critical strike and ignores armor on the target.
For this tier, the only real largely significant change is the removal of Bladestorm and the addition of Storm Bolt for thematic reasons. In addition, Shockwave is useful in certain scenarios, but Dragon Roar still maintains its presence as our best single-target option, but it also no longer splits damage evenly amongst targets, but deals flat damage to all targets in a radius around you. Storm Bolt's cooldown is usually too prohibitive to use full time
Tier 4: Shockwave (if you need AoE stuns), Dragon Roar for single-target damage
Tier 5: Utility
Mass Spell Reflection - Reflects the next spell cast on you and on all party and raid members within 20 yards for 5 seconds. Replaces Spell Reflection.
Safeguard - Run at high speeds towards a party or raid member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them and reducing their damage taken by 20% for 6 seconds. Replaces intervene.
Vigilance - Focus your protective gaze on a party or raid member reducing the damage they take by 30% for 12 seconds.
Because of the change to MSR, and because Safeguard doesn't break roots or snares anymore, most Warriors will be happy defaulting to Vigilance for added utility. Nobody thinks extra 30% damage reduction cooldowns are anything to take for granted, especially on progression fights, and the taunt resetting is an added bonus for add management.
Tier 5: Vigilance, or Spell Reflect if you need the utility it provides for your raid
Tier 6: Cooldowns!
Avatar - You Transform into a colossus for 24 seconds, breaking all roots and snares and increasing your damage dealt by 20%.
Bloodbath - For the next 12 seconds your melee damage abilities and their multi-strikes deal 30% additional damage as a bleed over 6 seconds. While Bleeding targets move 50% slower.
Bladestorm - Become an unstoppable storm of destructive force, striking all targets within 8 yards for 240% Physical damage every 1 second for 6 seconds. You are immune to movement impairing and loss of control effects, but can only use Taunt and other defensive abilities.
With the loss of Recklessness and Skull Banner, Protection (like most tank specs) is lacking in the throughput cooldown department, and this tier augments that capability. Bloodbath is still the estimated highest DPS talent of the three, Avatar is a potent increase in damage for very specific burst scenarios...and Bladestorm is Bladestorm.
Tier 6: Bloodbath (Arguments can be made for Avatar in certain circumstances).
Tier 7: New Things!
Anger Management: Every 30 rage that you spend reduces the remaining cooldown of several of your abilities by 1 second (For Protection this is: Avatar, Bloodbath, Bladestorm, Storm Bolt, Shockwave, Dragon Roar, Mocking Banner, Heroic Leap, Shield Wall, Demoralizing Shout and Last Stand).
Ravager: Throw a whirling axe at the target location that inflicts damage to enemies within 6 yards every 1 second. Lasts 10 seconds. Also increases your Parry chance by 30% for the duration.
Gladiator's Resolve: Increases the damage reduction provided by Defensive Stance by 5%. Alsow allows you to forgo your defensive role, and instead focus only on offensive capabilities, by replacing Battle Stance with Gladiator Stance.
Gladiator Stance is:
A dauntless combat stance.
Increases physical damage dealt by 20%, and replaces your Shield Block with Shield Charge.
You cannot change into or out of this stance during combat.
This tier is a very clear-cut option for Protection Warriors; if you intend on tanking, you should be taking Ravager. Yes I realize Gladiator's Resolve gives you an extra 5% damage reduction. No, that doesn't mean you should take it for tanking.
Gladiator's Resolve is mostly here to open up a brand new play style for DPS in allowing Protection to deal very substantial damage via this talent, and really that other bit for Defensive Stance is there so we can say it offers functionality to Protection as a whole. Anger Management doesn't do nearly enough for any spec of Warrior, especially Protection, to actually be worth anything at all in the first place, so that makes our choice very clear.
Tier 7: Ravager
So, just to recap, the talents most Protection Warriors (for tanking) should be taking, are the following:
Tier 1: Double Time or Juggernaut
Tier 2: Enraged Regeneration, or maybe Impending Victory in certain scenarios.
Tier 3: Any (at higher gear levels, either Heavy Repercussions or Sudden Death).
Tier 4: Shockwave (if you need AoE stuns), Dragon Roar for single-target damage
Tier 5: Vigilance, or Spell Reflect if you need the utility it provides for your raid
Tier 6: Bloodbath (Arguments can be made for Avatar in certain circumstances).
Tier 7: Ravager
Glyphs
Glyphs are a little more flexible than they used to be back in Mists of Pandaria, if and only if that there's probably only one “mandatory” glyph in Glyph of Cleave, but even that's debatable in and of itself. However, some glyphs are just flat out terrible choices all around, and as such I'll highlight which choices are decent options this go around:
Cleave – Heroic Strike now hits 2 targets.
Death from Above – Reduces the cooldown on Heroic Leap by 15 seconds, but the rnage of Heroic Leap is also reduced by 15 yards.
Enraged Speed – While Enraged, you move 20% faster.
Gag Order – Your Pummel and Heroic Throw also silence the target for 3 seconds. Does not work against players. This effect can only occur every 15 seconds.
Resonating Power – Increases the damage and cooldown of Thunder Clap by 50%.
Rude Interruption – Successfully interrupting a spell with Pummel increases your damage by 6% for 20 seconds.
Heroic Leap – Increases your speed by 70% for 3 seconds after using Heroic Leap.
Mocking Banner – Your Mocking Banner now causes creatures to attack the tank specialization player you had targeted when placing the Mocking Banner, instead of attacking you.
Spell Reflection – Reduces the cooldown on Spell Reflection by 5 seconds. Does not work with Mass Spell Reflection.
Shield Slam – Your Shield Slam now dispels 1 magical effect.
Unending Rage – Increases your maximum Rage by 20.
Victorious Throw – Increases the range of Victory Rush and Impending victory by 15 yards.
Wind and Thunder – Increases the radius of Whirlwind and Thunder Clap by 4 yards.
Because of the lack of absolute all-stars in terms of DPS on glyphs, these slots are way more flexible than most classes, and as such, you can really take whatever you want within the pool listed above and be fine. On average, there's a circumstance for each one of these, and somehow someone will find one to use it on.
“Go-To Glyphs” will look something like this, in order of priority:
Unending Rage
Cleave
Wind and Thunder
Heroic Leap
Gag Order
Resonating Power
Enraged Speed
Rude Interruption
Mocking Banner
Shield Slam
Victorious Throw
Death from Above
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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:32:02 GMT
reserved
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Post by Fattyy on Nov 13, 2014 2:32:14 GMT
reserved
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