Warrior Tank Options

[Corellon]

Well, I have had my eyes opened wide again about warrior tanks. Smedlock has tried without success to tank UP heroic. Last night with an undergeared warlock, still wearing tier 4 level 70 stuff, rifled through UP Heroic in about 35 min. With a Paladin tank. My run from Tuesday night was with the same undergeared lock and watched UK flash before my eyes and then the same group did Heroic VH. Now with all this being said and I've seen alot more than that before expansion, I have come to the conclusion that warrior tanks just don't have what it takes to tank and havn't for more than a year. I'm not griping, not not upset, just looking for some ideas on how to make a warrior tank better to at least be competitive as an off tank. I have begun to use my dps class as a main for now till I can figure out what to do about this dilemma, I would rather be tanking. I won't go through all the observations and facts that I have accumulated over the past year, but blizz has made it difficult to do the thing I like to do best. Until I can come up with some way to make it as a tank, I'll most likely be working on Clanger or Blackhed. Remember to have fun it's just a game!! AND! dps LFG any heroic!!

Edited March 5, 2009 by Corellon

[Jasena]

Ya could always go TG and stay on Smed. And once duel specs come out, switch back and forth. Just keep getting gear in the meantime. :o) We like having a big ole cow around.

[Xenojin]

Hey Smed!

Well i glanced at your spec really quick and i noticed a few things. I would honestly consider putting points in Improved Heroic Strike, Cruelty, Armored to the Teeth, and Deflection. Those 4 things alone are gonna increase your aggro generation SIGNIFICANTLY. You will obviously loose some defensive base stats (you will get all that back plus more as you upgrade gear).

But all in all, just stick to it man. Warrior tanks are always strongly needed especially in raids. I wouldn't let a couple heroic runs phase you at all. And these are just my opinions, take them or leave them.

[Waldonnis]

I somewhat agree on the warrior tanking front. It's not so much that they can't, it's just that it's usually easier to do on some of the other tanking classes (paladins and DKs notably). I still think protection needs some tweaks, but it hasn't seemed too bad overall from a threat perspective in my experience (including AoE situations). Paladins trivialise some encounters, DKs for others, druids still (for now) have their own specialties, and warriors even have a few that they do better on...but in general, all tanking classes are at about the same level for 99.9999% of the content out there right now from what I've seen.

That being said, I don't even own a shield on Romala, so I don't have any idea on tanking rotations or suggestions, but I can probably point out a few blogs and forums that should have some good advice. Tankspot would be my first stop...the forums there are actually very informative and better than EJ most of the time. There are a few other places that I frequent, but they tend to be more "encounter-specific" when it comes to advice.

I think the hardest thing for most warriors that I've talked to has been adapting to some of the changes to tanking and some of their abilities (the addition of glyphs alone has changed things for many). That, coupled with the fact that crowd control and focus fire seem to be bad words these days, is making it harder for many warriors to get a feel for their threat generation and handling AoE situations. I think the only thing I could offer up as advice is: practice, practice, then practice more. I frequently grab a couple of Northrend elites and try things out with Tyr...and it's improved my tanking rotation and threat generation significantly. Personally, I even intentionally throw away my normal rotation and try new things from time to time...just to see if I can find a better way to do it. I tend to do this stuff outside of pressure situations (like outside of instances or raids) to give me more freedom to go nuts and probably die without affecting anyone else...and believe me, I mess up more often than not If you feel more comfy with a healer around, let me know and I'd be happy to bring Adranna or Jaryndis out to lend a hand (or even Tyr if you want to compare threat to another tank, which can also be helpful).

[Corellon]

Hey Smed!

Well i glanced at your spec really quick and i noticed a few things. I would honestly consider putting points in Improved Heroic Strike, Cruelty, Armored to the Teeth, and Deflection. Those 4 things alone are gonna increase your aggro generation SIGNIFICANTLY. You will obviously loose some defensive base stats (you will get all that back plus more as you upgrade gear).

But all in all, just stick to it man. Warrior tanks are always strongly needed especially in raids. I wouldn't let a couple heroic runs phase you at all. And these are just my opinions, take them or leave them.

Thank you for you input and thoughts, I will work on some talent point swaps and test them out. As for a few heroic runs, I have taken smed on numerous raid and heroic runs before and after expansion and have notes to cover all of them. I cannot go as far in a raid or dungeon as a warrior tank. But as a mediocre dps, I can go quite far and fast with either a pally tank or death knight tank. I barely have any gear and got UP heroic done in less than half an hour with my dps warlock and have yet to complete it on a number of attempts with smed. This is just one example, I do have a long list and it's not getting better. In any case I haven't ever given up, just relaxing a bit on other classes. I'm just been tired of working so hard on my warrior with no results to show for it. It just seems more satisfying to play my warlock and not have to worry about agro for a while.