Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
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Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
I like to tank. I remember that tanking is kinda nuts in vanilla so going prot would make it much easier than going fury/arms and pseudo tanking instances. Would it be viable to spec into prot from the get-go and be able to level? Thanks in advance for the advice!
- Underverse
- Tester
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
The only difference between tanking as Prot and tanking as Fury/Arms while leveling is that it is slightly easier to hold aggro, or you might survive a little longer, depending on how you spec. The difference is highly neligible. If you decide to level as Prot, you won't be able to kill anything by yourself.
I'd say tank everything up to Maraudon and Sunken Temple in Fury/Arms, then refrain from doing any higher level instances until you cap, when you can spec Prot to your liking and get some gear, although you don't even need to go full prot to tank high level instances.
I'd say tank everything up to Maraudon and Sunken Temple in Fury/Arms, then refrain from doing any higher level instances until you cap, when you can spec Prot to your liking and get some gear, although you don't even need to go full prot to tank high level instances.
- Whiskra
- Grunt
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
Whiskra wrote:The only difference between tanking as Prot and tanking as Fury/Arms while leveling is that it is slightly easier to hold aggro, or you might survive a little longer, depending on how you spec. The difference is highly neligible. If you decide to level as Prot, you won't be able to kill anything by yourself.
I'd say tank everything up to Maraudon and Sunken Temple in Fury/Arms, then refrain from doing any higher level instances until you cap, when you can spec Prot to your liking and get some gear, although you don't even need to go full prot to tank high level instances.
Actually you can tank all dungeons as arms/fury even at 60. Infact, if you know what you are doing you can even maintank UBRS as fury.
- Storfan
- Sergeant
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
Prot worthless outside of 40 man raids. Even then no need to go more than 16 points prot to get 5/5 defiance or 19 points to pick up last stand. Grab 5/5 toughness and 1/3 imp shield block along the way and you're golden.
- rakei
- Sergeant
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
Whiskra wrote:If you decide to level as Prot, you won't be able to kill anything by yourself.
I leveled as prot on other server 0-60, it's just slower to kill mobs but you can kill pretty much anything.
- Asman
- Grunt
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
Delete this please.
Last edited by provaporizer on Sat Apr 25, 2015 9:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
- provaporizer
- Private
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
provaporizer wrote:Storfan wrote:Whiskra wrote:The only difference between tanking as Prot and tanking as Fury/Arms while leveling is that it is slightly easier to hold aggro, or you might survive a little longer, depending on how you spec. The difference is highly neligible. If you decide to level as Prot, you won't be able to kill anything by yourself.
I'd say tank everything up to Maraudon and Sunken Temple in Fury/Arms, then refrain from doing any higher level instances until you cap, when you can spec Prot to your liking and get some gear, although you don't even need to go full prot to tank high level instances.
Actually you can tank all dungeons as arms/fury even at 60. Infact, if you know what you are doing you can even maintank UBRS as fury.
So do you mean you go defensive stance and sunder everything just with no prot talents? Because if I knew that I wouldn't of specced so far into prot.
- provaporizer
- Private
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
provaporizer wrote: So do you mean you go defensive stance and sunder everything just with no prot talents? Because if I knew that I wouldn't of specced so far into prot.
Yes. Tanking as fury/arms is basically the same rotation as prot only you dont have shieldslam. Sunder, shieldblock and revenge are your main abilities and spam HS if you got excess rage. Demoshout and thunderclap when tanking very large packs.
- Storfan
- Sergeant
Re: Is it Viable Leveling in Prot spec?
The warrior class itself is designed to be good at tanking, regardless of talent spec. Prot talents make you marginally better at the role in different respects, but most of them aren't critical.
Blocking shaves small to moderate amounts of damage off what would otherwise be full hits. Doing this more often through Shield Spec means you will take slightly less damage over time. This basically means healers have a slightly easier job. Outside of 40 mans, this isn't a critical difference.
Anticipation is a talent that can be rendered obsolete by gear. Useful if you aren't defense capped. Mostly worthless otherwise.
Toughness talents mean you will take slightly less damage from melee than you normally would. This essentially has the same effect on fights as shield spec. Healers needing to spend slightly less mana over time means a greater chance of success on long fights.
Defiance might be seen as the most important prot talent, but this is only in situations where the DPS must work very fast in order for the group to succeed. If time isn't critical, threat management is a group effort; it doesn't fall solely on the tank's shoulders. A warrior without this talent can still generate a lot of threat quite effectively.
Last Stand is an "oh shit" talent. It might prevent a wipe sometimes. But most of the time wipes are avoidable through playing well. Last Stand is a safety net. You shouldn't need it, but sometimes it's nice to have it.
Improved Taunt is similarly a crutch. If the group is playing well, having an 8 second CD over a 10 second CD taunt shouldn't make a difference.
Improved Sunder Armor makes your threat generation a little more rage efficient. As with Defiance, outside of 40 mans this shouldn't be an issue. The only time generating threat super fast is important is when you are trying to beat a timer (real or invented) and DPS needs to crank it up. A warrior without this talent is still capable of generating a lot of threat.
Most of the other talents are very minor perks. Iron Will puts RNG slightly more in your favor in certain situations, but often "does nothing" because you'll still get stunned/charmed quite frequently (unless you are an orc, in which case your stun resist chance becomes almost a reasonable expectation). Improved Revenge is actually anti-synergy with tanking in some respects, because we do rely on taking damage to generate rage. Imp Shield Wall and Imp Disarm both just extend the duration of the effect. These can be useful, but the base abilities without talents are already very good, and will serve their purposes effectively. One-handed weapon spec is basically just another small threat boost, as a tank's damage output is of minor importance. Imp Shield Bash and Concussion blow are both situational utility moves which don't fill any real holes in a standard warrior's tanking game.
Finally, there's shield slam. Almost all aspects of this move are irrelevant (or redundant) to tanking. At face value it's prot's instant attack, and allows a warrior to do a little more dps while tanking, which isn't what the tank is there for anyway. However, this, along with its high threat value, makes it a great threat-generating move... of which a standard warrior already has plenty. Sunder, revenge, and heroic strike are already fantastic threat generating tools that all specs of warrior have access to. Finally, it has a 50% chance of dispelling a magic effect on the target. In most situations, if there's a buff that needs to be dispelled, an actual dispeller will take care of it, because you can't rely on coin flips six seconds apart to dispel that buff that's going to get people killed.
Warriors can tank. They've been designed so that even with zero talents spent, a warrior will be able to fill a tanking role in most situations. It's really only once you get into the 40 man raids that protection talents become useful enough to want to take. Don't bother with prot while you're leveling.
Blocking shaves small to moderate amounts of damage off what would otherwise be full hits. Doing this more often through Shield Spec means you will take slightly less damage over time. This basically means healers have a slightly easier job. Outside of 40 mans, this isn't a critical difference.
Anticipation is a talent that can be rendered obsolete by gear. Useful if you aren't defense capped. Mostly worthless otherwise.
Toughness talents mean you will take slightly less damage from melee than you normally would. This essentially has the same effect on fights as shield spec. Healers needing to spend slightly less mana over time means a greater chance of success on long fights.
Defiance might be seen as the most important prot talent, but this is only in situations where the DPS must work very fast in order for the group to succeed. If time isn't critical, threat management is a group effort; it doesn't fall solely on the tank's shoulders. A warrior without this talent can still generate a lot of threat quite effectively.
Last Stand is an "oh shit" talent. It might prevent a wipe sometimes. But most of the time wipes are avoidable through playing well. Last Stand is a safety net. You shouldn't need it, but sometimes it's nice to have it.
Improved Taunt is similarly a crutch. If the group is playing well, having an 8 second CD over a 10 second CD taunt shouldn't make a difference.
Improved Sunder Armor makes your threat generation a little more rage efficient. As with Defiance, outside of 40 mans this shouldn't be an issue. The only time generating threat super fast is important is when you are trying to beat a timer (real or invented) and DPS needs to crank it up. A warrior without this talent is still capable of generating a lot of threat.
Most of the other talents are very minor perks. Iron Will puts RNG slightly more in your favor in certain situations, but often "does nothing" because you'll still get stunned/charmed quite frequently (unless you are an orc, in which case your stun resist chance becomes almost a reasonable expectation). Improved Revenge is actually anti-synergy with tanking in some respects, because we do rely on taking damage to generate rage. Imp Shield Wall and Imp Disarm both just extend the duration of the effect. These can be useful, but the base abilities without talents are already very good, and will serve their purposes effectively. One-handed weapon spec is basically just another small threat boost, as a tank's damage output is of minor importance. Imp Shield Bash and Concussion blow are both situational utility moves which don't fill any real holes in a standard warrior's tanking game.
Finally, there's shield slam. Almost all aspects of this move are irrelevant (or redundant) to tanking. At face value it's prot's instant attack, and allows a warrior to do a little more dps while tanking, which isn't what the tank is there for anyway. However, this, along with its high threat value, makes it a great threat-generating move... of which a standard warrior already has plenty. Sunder, revenge, and heroic strike are already fantastic threat generating tools that all specs of warrior have access to. Finally, it has a 50% chance of dispelling a magic effect on the target. In most situations, if there's a buff that needs to be dispelled, an actual dispeller will take care of it, because you can't rely on coin flips six seconds apart to dispel that buff that's going to get people killed.
Warriors can tank. They've been designed so that even with zero talents spent, a warrior will be able to fill a tanking role in most situations. It's really only once you get into the 40 man raids that protection talents become useful enough to want to take. Don't bother with prot while you're leveling.
- Orggrim
- Private
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