PVPing as a protection spec warrior.

Karl Hungus

Ok, I haven't really posted on this forum before, but I've been reading it more lately and actually feel like contributing something. Anyway, I'm not the biggest Warcraft head out there, so I've only 2 characters, a mutilate spec rogue who's been level 70 for some time now and a protection spec warrior who's just recently dinged 70. I think the idea was to have one that's mainly a PVP character and one a PVE to get the best of both worlds. It's worked out pretty well before the new patch, with my rogue owning in battlefields, and my warrior being called on to tank in most instances on my way to 70.

Reading this thread, and noticing this post about how a PVE geared protection warrior owned 2 mages, I have to add my own experiences.

Now, I've taken my tank into battlegrounds before as a curiosity. I got hurt so bad it was hilarious. Aside from AV, it just wasn't viable to take my character into any PVP situation. But it's been a very different case with some new skills that are had, and I think protection specced warriors will really carve out a niche for themselves in BGs now. Like the other poster, I'm not using any PVP gear, and my gear is pretty crap so far.

I'm using this build with one fundamental difference. I've taken a point from damage shield (not a great talent in my opinion, I never went for shield spikes because the damage caused was entirely negligible, so I don't mind losing out a point here) and put it into warbringer. Warbringer is an amazing talent that's well worth having in any situation, because of it, I never leave defensive stance. It's great for PVE because of bosses that knockback, it negates any stance dancing, and breaking movement impairing effects is nothing short of brilliant. Charging an ice mage or boomkin when they think they have you trapped is delightful.

Next talent that makes a protection warrior a spellcaster's worst enemy is gag order. 3 seconds of silence is immense, and you can pack in some serious hurt from a shield slam right afterwards. Not 100% sure on this, but it looks like a mage can't blink after being hit with a shield bash with the gag order talent. Either the mages I slapped were too dumbfounded to blink or it does stop them blinking, but assuming they can't, that's 3 seconds where a mage is completely defenseless and at your mercy. That's not all, in WotLK, us warriors will be getting the Heroic Throw skill, and gag order affects that too, another 3 seconds of silence. Unless Heroic Throw and Shield Bash are on a shared timer, then you can engage a spellcaster like so: Heroic Throw>Charge>Shield Slam>Shield Bash>Concussion Blow, and reduce him to a stain on the floor with a full 6 seconds of nerdrage inducing helplessness.

Now, it does seem like the protection warrior is the answer to all those griefing spellcasters, but I've found it extremely useful against other classes as well. Essentially, I've been stunlocking other players a great deal, almost to the same extent as my rogue! Shockwave is my new favourite talent, because it's powerful as hell in the right situations and has a relatively short cooldown compared to hoof stomp. My last eye of the storm match, it caused great disruption to enemy flag grabbers, and you don't have to be in melee range either, it can be terrific to stop someone you're chasing dead in their tracks long enough for you to gain a serious advantage on them.

I've gone toe-to-toe with a number of fury specced PVP warriors now, and with improved revenge and concussion blow, I'm not only doing severe damage to them, I'm also stunlocking them. Add to that, hoof stomp (if you're a tauren like me) and the aforementioned shockwave, the stun potential is unreal.

Anyway, seeing as I'm playing my warrior almost exclusively now, I found the differences between PVPing as a tank pre-patch and post-patch is truly exceptional, and for the first time in the many months I've been playing Warcraft, I actually topped the damage done in a battleground. That's something I never got close to doing on my Rogue; a DPS spec.

Thoughts?

Mena

Nice post.

Our Prot warriors have all decided to level to 80 as Prot spec, which was suprising considering they usually spend 200g a night on respecs

Seems like a lot's been done to the spec, I should try it out.

regi

Stop telling people how good prot tanks are. Ssshh.

Gummy Panda

Mena wrote: »

Nice post.

Our Prot warriors have all decided to level to 80 as Prot spec, which was suprising considering they usually spend 200g a night on respecs

Seems like a lot's been done to the spec, I should try it out.

I would say they're mad since my former main was prot warrior but the reitemisation and talents shouldn't slow them down. Prot has changed alot in wotlk.

60-70 as prot *shudders*

At least this time there will be more tanks other then feral druids leveling in a tank spec.

Karl Hungus

Mena wrote: »

Nice post.

Our Prot warriors have all decided to level to 80 as Prot spec, which was suprising considering they usually spend 200g a night on respecs

Seems like a lot's been done to the spec, I should try it out.

Thank you. This was the first time I've ever felt like I had something wow related I could speak about with some degree of confidence, as I really am a relative newb, I haven't even been playing a year yet and often relied on other people's advice, talent specs and tactics. I wouldn't have deviated at all from recommended builds, never mind saying x is a better talent than y before and explain why.

Leveling protection spec is certainly as valid as any other build these days. With my warrior I did indeed start him as a tank, and leveled him as such, which certainly wouldn't have been a good idea for anyone who's leveling a main. Really, he was my secondary character, and probably got most of his experience through instance runs rather than solo play so leveled very, very slowly... I had him created for months by the time I hit level 40 or so. When the new patch came out, I went from level 45 to level 70 in about 2 weeks I think. Never specced out of protection for a moment, and since the warbringer talent, never left defensive stance.

The talents got a real shakedown, a warrior tank can now do far more damage than they could before. Armored to the teeth makes a huge impact on your attack power, so the better armor you have, the harder you hit. Concussion blow now does damage, whereas before it was merely a stun. Shockwave as well does enough damage to be used on a single mob while shield slam cools down.

regi wrote: »

Stop telling people how good prot tanks are. Ssshh.

Something tells me that people will find out soon enough anyway.

copeyhagen

i read on another forum that a lot of warrs were deciding to level to 80 as prot as the dmg bursts might not be as high as say, arms or the duel 2hander fury specs, but that prot warrs can take multiple mobs now with ease.

tried the arms build wasnt too happy with it.

my 70 warr is a mix of kara prot gear and blues (he got left behind when my huntard hit 70) so deffo gonna respec prot tonight.

Nehaxak

Nice post Karl.

My main used to be my warrior and I levelled 60 to 70 as purely protection spec, just for a change. Barely any downtime and at least made it more interesting.

Plan on doing the same thing when I get around to levelling up the warrior in the new expansion, looks like I'll enjoy it too going from your post

Karl Hungus

copeyhagen wrote: »

but that prot warrs can take multiple mobs now with ease.

Very true.

Before the patch, I used to find that it wasn't all that possible to take on too many enemies at once, because the damage just wasn't there to take them down fast enough. This was in stark contrast with my rogue, because I'd easily take on 3 or 4 mobs at a time by using a combination of sap, blind and evasion for crowd control, and have them all dead pretty quick.

With my warrior, I can very easily nuke mobs, and with Shockwave, the area of effect damage and crowd control is fantastic. In instances I've been out-DPS'ing a lot of classes, including rogues and once a retribution paladin. :pac:

copeyhagen

haha and postpatch any member of a raid or instance that was out dps'd by a warrior tank was fail!!!!